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By Tom Williams on Jul 14 2026 11:21 AM
Apple is suing OpenAI for allegedly encouraging former Apple employees to steal details of the company’s upcoming products and share them with OpenAI during job interviews.
The case, filed in US District Court on Friday, comes as OpenAI develops its first consumer devices, which are expected to tightly integrate its popular AI chatbot, ChatGPT.
“Apple has uncovered a pattern of theft of Apple’s trade secrets by OpenAI employees who were formerly at Apple,” reads Apple’s lawsuit.
Apple has accused OpenAI of telling Apple employees to bring “CAD/design artifacts” and “prototypes” to job interviews at the AI firm.
More than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, according to Apple’s suit.
The company has also alleged that Apple employees who moved to OpenAI “emailed themselves Apple’s confidential information to personal accounts on their way out the door”, while others shared what they knew about Apple’s confidential plans “to assist OpenAI in developing hardware”.
The tech giant names two former Apple employees and former Apple design chief Jony Ive’s hardware firm io – which OpenAI purchased in 2025 – as defendants in the case.
Ive himself is not named in the lawsuit.
Apple told the court that it raised its concerns directly with OpenAI in February, but did not receive a response.
The company has asked for a jury trial, as well as several injunctions and monetary damages against OpenAI.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment, but reportedly told US media that it had unearthed “significant evidence” of wrongdoing.
“We will always defend our teams’ hard work and innovations, and we are taking all appropriate steps to do so,” the company said.
OpenAI told Information Age it is reviewing Apple’s lawsuit, adding in a statement that the firm has "no interest in other companies’ trade secrets".
"We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere," a spokesperson said.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in response to an X user’s comment on Monday, “I am not afraid of Apple, but I have tremendous respect for them.”
i am not afraid of apple, but i have tremendous respect for them. s-tier company.
Apple’s lawsuit names OpenAI’s chief hardware officer Tang Tan, who previously worked in design at Apple for 24 years, as a defendant.
Tan, who was previously Apple’s vice president of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch, “has been methodically using Apple’s confidential information to benefit OpenAI”, Apple has alleged.
The company accused Tan of asking Apple employees to bring “actual parts” from Apple to job interviews at OpenAI for “show and tell” sessions, and of warning staffers leaving Apple not to tell the company “so they can stay at Apple as long as they can” and extract more information.
Also named as a defendant by Apple is former employee Chang Liu, who spent eight years as an electric engineer “working on some of Apple’s most sensitive product development programs” before joining OpenAI in January 2026, according to the lawsuit.
Apple has alleged that Liu “failed to return an Apple-issued work laptop” and “exploited a rare, previously unknown authentication bug” to access confidential Apple documents while working for OpenAI.
In messages left on a former colleague’s Apple work laptop, Liu allegedly wrote that the incident was “so funny”.
He downloaded “dozens of Apple’s confidential hardware-related files”, including information about unreleased products, engineering presentations, and technical specifications, Apple alleged.
“OpenAI’s nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets,” Apple wrote in its lawsuit.
Neither Tan nor Liu have commented publicly on Apple’s allegations.
Tang Tan (left) and Chang Liu (right) both left Apple to join OpenAI. Images: LinkedIn
Apple’s lawsuit marks a striking shift in its relationship with OpenAI, which it partnered with to integrate ChatGPT into parts of Apple’s AI software, known as Apple Intelligence.
Both companies are also developing new devices which are expected to tightly integrate generative AI features.
Apple has reportedly explored smart glasses, new AirPods earphones with built-in cameras, a smart speaker with an attached display, home security cameras, and even a tabletop robot with a moveable arm and large screen.
OpenAI has reportedly considered potential devices such as AI-focused wearables including earbuds and smart glasses, as well as speakers and a potential rival to Apple’s iPhone – but it may be forced to redesign its products if Apple’s lawsuit is successful.
OpenAI, which announced in June that it is pursuing an initial public offering (IPO) on the US stock market, already has partnerships with Apple’s iPhone assembler Foxconn and other Apple suppliers such as Luxshare and Goertek.
Apple alleged in its lawsuit that OpenAI had “resorted to taking unlawful shortcuts” in the race to build its first hardware products.
Amid “mounting pressure” to deliver, OpenAI is also facing “the reality that building a successful consumer device business from scratch is more complex, time-consuming, and difficult than it anticipated”, Apple stated.
Tom Williams is a senior journalist at Information Age with key interests in consumer technology, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cybersecurity, and telecommunications. He was previously a digital journalist at ABC News, where he covered technology and breaking news.
You can follow Tom on Bluesky, LinkedIn, or Threads, contact him at [email protected], and send tip-offs via secure email to [email protected].