Apple is suing OpenAI, saying it stole trade secrets

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California named as defendants Tang Yew Tan, who serves as OpenAI's chief hardware officer, and Chang Liu, a member of its technical staff. Appel accused both of obtaining Apple's confidential information by various means. Tang Yew Tan and Chang Liu are former Apple employees.

According to the complaint, while employed at OpenAI, Chang Liu — a senior system electrical engineer who spent more than eight years at Apple before departing in January 2026 — obtained access to Apple's internal network through a laptop belonging to a former colleague and used it to pull dozens of confidential hardware files, among them details on unreleased products, engineering presentations, and technical specifications. The suit further claims that Chang Liu took advantage of a previously undisclosed authentication vulnerability to reach Apple's shared network folders, and gave his former colleague guidance on copying files in ways that would not draw attention from Apple's security personnel. Apple says Chang Liu failed to return an Apple-issued laptop when he departed.

OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri said in a statement, "We have no interest in other companies' trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere."

Before co-founding io Products — the design studio OpenAI purchased for roughly $6.5 billion in 2025 — Tang Yew Tan had built a nearly quarter-century career at Apple, where his responsibilities included overseeing product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch. Among the specific allegations against Tang Yew Tan are that he forwarded Apple supplier information to his personal email before his departure, arranged for Apple employees interviewing at OpenAI to bring physical device components for hands-on demonstrations, and gave incoming hires advice on how to slip past Apple's procedures for employees who are leaving the company.

The suit also accuses OpenAI of leveraging stolen information to make contact with Apple's contract manufacturers — including persuading one of them to perform a proprietary metal-finishing process by falsely representing that Apple had sanctioned the request. The complaint states that more than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI.

The filing represents a dramatic escalation of tensions between two companies whose once-prominent partnership — a 2024 agreement to bring ChatGPT into Siri — has been coming apart for some time. That partnership has since frayed: OpenAI grew dissatisfied with how Apple surfaced ChatGPT within its products, and Apple announced in June that a rebuilt version of Siri would run on Google $GOOGL Gemini instead.

According to the complaint, Apple sent OpenAI a letter in February flagging its suspicion that proprietary information had been improperly flowing to the company, and requested that OpenAI look into the matter. OpenAI did not respond, the complaint says.

For relief, Apple is asking the court to prohibit OpenAI from retaining, exploiting, or distributing its trade secrets and to compel the return of all misappropriated intellectual property.