Apple has filed a sweeping trade-secret lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the ChatGPT maker of orchestrating a years-long scheme to poach Apple engineers and extract confidential hardware designs as OpenAI races to build its own consumer AI devices. The suit, filed in federal court in Northern California, names OpenAI, its hardware chief Tang Tan, former Apple engineer Chang Liu, and Jony Ive’s startup IO Products as defendants, and lands just as OpenAI prepares for what could become the largest tech IPO in history.
What to know:
- Apple says more than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, which it frames as part of a coordinated recruiting campaign rather than ordinary industry turnover.
- Former Apple engineer Chang Liu allegedly stole an Apple laptop and downloaded dozens of confidential hardware files, including specs and engineering presentations for unreleased products.
- Tang Tan, OpenAI’s hardware chief and a 24-year Apple veteran who led iPhone and Apple Watch product design, is accused of using Apple project code names during recruiting and asking candidates to bring in Apple components for interviews.
- Apple’s filing describes the alleged scheme as operating “at every level,” from rank-and-file technical staff up to OpenAI’s chief hardware officer.
- The dispute traces back to OpenAI’s $6.4 billion acquisition of Jony Ive’s hardware startup IO Products last year, which signaled OpenAI’s entry into consumer devices.
- Apple is seeking damages, injunctions, and a court order forcing OpenAI to stop using any of its trade secrets.
The lawsuit marks a dramatic escalation in what was, as recently as 2024, a cooperative relationship between the two companies. Apple and OpenAI struck a high-profile partnership that year to integrate ChatGPT directly into iPhone software, giving Siri access to OpenAI’s models for complex queries. That goodwill has eroded steadily since OpenAI signaled its ambition to build hardware of its own, a move that put it in direct competition with the company whose products it once complemented.
According to the complaint, the alleged theft was not the work of a single rogue employee but a systematic effort reaching into Apple’s most sensitive product pipelines. Court filings describe Chang Liu, a former member of Apple’s hardware engineering staff, as having taken a company laptop upon his departure and using it to access and download “dozens of confidential hardware-related files,” including detailed technical specifications and engineering presentations tied to products Apple has not yet announced. Apple says many of the files were explicitly marked confidential.
The complaint reserves its sharpest allegations for Tang Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple before departing to lead hardware efforts at OpenAI. Apple alleges Tan used his insider knowledge of the company’s unannounced projects during OpenAI’s recruiting drives, including invoking internal Apple code names to entice candidates and, in some cases, allegedly asking prospective hires to bring physical Apple hardware components to job interviews. Apple further claims Tan and OpenAI coached departing employees on how to sidestep the company’s internal security and exit procedures designed to protect confidential information.
Central to the dispute is IO Products, the hardware startup OpenAI acquired for $6.4 billion after Ive and a small team left Apple to found it. The venture was widely seen as OpenAI’s bid to build a signature consumer AI device to rival the iPhone. Apple’s lawsuit names IO Products as a defendant but notably does not accuse Ive himself of wrongdoing, focusing instead on the conduct of engineers and executives who moved between the companies.
In its filing, Apple did not mince words about the scale of what it alleges, 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.” The company is asking the court for monetary damages, a formal injunction barring further use of the disputed material, and an order compelling OpenAI to return or destroy any Apple trade secrets in its possession.
The timing is notable. OpenAI is reportedly preparing a confidential IPO filing with underwriters including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, targeting a public debut as early as September at a valuation approaching $730 billion — a figure that, if realized, would make it the largest technology listing on record. A protracted trade-secret fight with one of the world’s most valuable companies could complicate that process, inviting additional scrutiny from investors and regulators alike just as OpenAI tries to project stability ahead of going public.
OpenAI has not detailed a public response to the specific allegations at the time of filing. Legal analysts note that trade-secret cases of this scale often take years to resolve and can hinge heavily on internal communications and forensic evidence of what data actually left Apple’s systems. For now, the case sets up a high-stakes legal battle between two of the most closely watched companies in tech, playing out just as both push deeper into the same market: AI-powered consumer hardware.
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