Apple sues OpenAI over alleged theft of trade secrets
Apple filed suit on Friday against OpenAI and two former Apple employees in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging they misappropriated trade secrets to advance OpenAI’s move into consumer devices. Named alongside OpenAI’s corporate entities and its io Products hardware unit are Chang Liu, a former senior electrical engineer, and Tang Yew Tan, a former vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch.
The complaint alleges a coordinated effort touching “every level” of a hardware program: product designs, manufacturing processes and supply-chain strategies. According to Apple, Liu retained a work-issued laptop after leaving and used a bug to reach Apple’s network file storage while employed at OpenAI. Apple accuses Tan of invoking confidential Apple project code names during OpenAI’s recruiting, asking candidates to bring Apple hardware components to interviews, and coaching departing employees on evading Apple’s security procedures.
Apple is seeking damages, injunctions and an order barring OpenAI from using the information. The suit is a sharp turn for two firms that struck a high-profile partnership in 2024 to integrate ChatGPT into the iPhone’s operating system, and it lands as OpenAI builds out a hardware effort that would put it in direct competition with Apple. The core dispute — whether OpenAI’s device work rests on independently developed technology or on Apple’s confidential know-how — will hinge on discovery into what the former employees took and how it was used.