Apple has sued OpenAI and two of its employees, alleging that former Apple staff members stole confidential information to help the ChatGPT maker develop its own hardware business.
The civil complaint, filed Friday in the Northern District of California, names OpenAI Chief Hardware Officer Tang Tan and Chang Liu, a technical staffer. Both previously worked at Apple. The lawsuit accuses them of taking proprietary information and says OpenAI participated in a “coordinated pattern of misconduct at an institutional level.”
Apple’s allegations
Apple’s complaint says the case is about former employees “stealing Apple’s trade secrets for the benefit of OpenAI.” The company is asking the court to stop the alleged conduct and says the lawsuit, along with the discovery process, is necessary to uncover and remedy what it describes as widespread theft.
Tan worked at Apple for more than two decades and helped design the iPhone, Apple Watch and iPod, according to the complaint. Liu spent eight years as an Apple electrical engineer and allegedly had access to some of the company’s most sensitive product-development information.
The complaint does not, in the details available publicly, identify a finished OpenAI device or describe exactly which secrets Apple believes were taken. That distinction will matter. In a trade-secret case, the company bringing the claim generally must connect specific confidential information to its economic value, show that it took steps to protect that information and demonstrate that it was improperly acquired, disclosed or used.
Apple said it had contacted OpenAI to discuss its concerns before filing suit, but claimed the company did not respond. An Apple spokesperson said the company would “always defend our teams’ hard work and innovations” and was taking “all appropriate steps” to do so.
OpenAI’s hardware ambitions
OpenAI has not disclosed what kinds of products it may be developing to run its software. It has said it is researching new ways for people to interact with artificial intelligence beyond “traditional products and interfaces,” as it expands into physical products.
Apple’s lawsuit portrays that effort as an aggressive push to bring hardware to market. The complaint alleges that OpenAI, under pressure to deliver its first hardware product, resorted to “unlawful shortcuts.” It also accuses the company of moving away from its nonprofit roots in favor of maximizing profits.
Apple describes OpenAI’s emerging hardware operation as resting on a foundation “rotten to its core” because of its alleged reliance on misappropriated trade secrets. Those statements are allegations in a civil complaint, not findings that OpenAI has violated the law.
OpenAI rejected the accusation. A company spokesperson said: “We have no interest in other companies’ trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.”
A partnership that has soured
The lawsuit follows a business agreement the companies struck in 2024 to offer artificial-intelligence services on Apple devices. The relationship has since deteriorated, turning a partnership between two of the technology industry’s most prominent companies into a legal dispute over employees, confidential information and future products.
The suit also arrives as OpenAI prepares for what is expected to be a massive initial public offering. A lawsuit alleging that its hardware strategy depended on stolen information could create additional scrutiny around the company’s governance, hiring practices and plans to expand beyond software.
For Apple, the case reaches into a particularly sensitive area: the movement of experienced product and engineering personnel to a company seeking to create new devices. Employees can generally change jobs, but companies cannot lawfully take protected confidential information with them. The eventual evidence will need to distinguish ordinary knowledge and professional experience from information that Apple can show was secret and used improperly.
What happens next
OpenAI and the two individual defendants will have an opportunity to respond formally in court. The next stages are likely to focus on the information Apple says was taken, how it was accessed, whether it reached OpenAI systems or personnel, and whether it influenced any hardware work. Emails, device records, recruiting communications and product-development documents could become important if the case proceeds to discovery.
Apple could seek court orders restricting the use or disclosure of disputed information while the litigation continues, as well as other remedies. Whether such relief is granted will depend on the evidence and the court’s assessment of the potential harm. The case could also be resolved through a settlement, though any agreement would need to address both the alleged information misuse and the role of the two former Apple employees.
Until those issues are tested in court, the complaint establishes Apple’s position, not liability. The dispute’s broader significance will depend on whether Apple can tie identifiable trade secrets to OpenAI’s hardware efforts—and whether OpenAI’s still-undisclosed products make that connection easier or harder to prove.