Apple sues OpenAI, alleging trade secret theft tied to its hardware push

Apple has sued OpenAI in federal court, accusing the AI lab of stealing confidential Apple trade secrets and using them to help build its own consumer AI hardware. The complaint, filed Friday, names OpenAI directly and centers on two individuals: Tang Tan, a 24-year Apple veteran who led iPhone and Apple Watch hardware and is now OpenAI's chief hardware officer, and Chang Liu, a former senior Apple systems electrical engineer who joined OpenAI in 2026.

What's new

"Apple filed a lawsuit Friday against OpenAI over allegations of trade secret theft and breach of contract," according to TechCrunch's report on the filing. The complaint alleges the misconduct reached senior leadership, stating that "at every level, from members of its Technical Staff to its Chief Hardware Officer, and in coordination with business partners, OpenAI has been stealing Apple's trade secrets and confidential information."

Specific allegations in the filing include:

• Liu allegedly failed to return an Apple-issued laptop after leaving for OpenAI and used it to download confidential technical documents covering unannounced Apple technologies, features, and products — including technical specifications, engineering presentations, and proprietary project data.
• Tan is accused of using Apple project code names during OpenAI recruiting and asking job candidates to bring in "actual parts" — batteries, logic boards, and system-in-package components — for interview "show and tell" sessions.
• The suit references a proprietary Apple metal-finishing technique that OpenAI allegedly used after misleading a manufacturing partner into believing it had Apple's permission to do so.
• Apple says departing staff were coached on how to evade the company's security and exit protocols.

Apple is asking the court to bar OpenAI from using or disclosing any of the disputed trade secrets, force the company to return confidential Apple materials, and preserve evidence relevant to the case.

Context

Apple and OpenAI were close partners as recently as 2024, when ChatGPT was integrated directly into iOS as part of Apple Intelligence. That relationship has since cooled as OpenAI has pushed into consumer hardware — most notably its 2025 acquisition of former Apple design chief Jony Ive's startup, io Products, for roughly $6.4 billion. Tan's move from Apple's hardware organization to lead that same effort at OpenAI has been a visible symbol of the rivalry playing out between the two companies over engineering talent.

The filing lands in the same week OpenAI shipped its GPT-5.6 model family and its ChatGPT Work "super app," underscoring how much is riding on OpenAI's broader platform ambitions — hardware included — as it competes with both Apple and Anthropic.

Why it matters

This is the most direct legal confrontation yet between Apple and an AI lab it once treated as a strategic partner, and it puts OpenAI's hardware program under a legal cloud just as that program becomes central to the company's identity beyond chatbots. If Apple's specific evidentiary claims hold up — a named executive, a named engineer, an unreturned laptop, and a described manufacturing technique — the case could shape how aggressively other AI labs recruit hardware talent out of incumbents, and how tightly companies like Apple police IP boundaries as former employees move to AI-hardware rivals. It also adds a legal front to a rivalry that was previously confined to product and platform competition.