Apple sues OpenAI, alleging its hardware is built on stolen secrets

Apple has sued OpenAI, accusing it of building its coming hardware on trade secrets carried out of Cupertino by former Apple employees. The complaint, filed on July 10 in federal court in Northern California, centers on two people. Tang Tan, now OpenAI's chief hardware officer, spent 24 years at Apple leading product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch. Apple says he used confidential project code names while recruiting, asked candidates to bring Apple hardware parts to their interviews, and coached departing staff on how to get around the company's security procedures. The second, engineer Chang Liu, allegedly kept his Apple laptop after leaving, took confidential technical documents with him, and passed information to other Apple employees who were applying to OpenAI.

The material at stake, as Apple describes it, includes unreleased product features, technical specifications, vendor and component choices, and a proprietary metal finishing technique. The timing is the real point. OpenAI is widely reported to be working on its first hardware device, possibly a phone that runs on AI agents rather than apps, and it bought Jony Ive's design firm io for $6.5 billion last year. Apple is asking the court to bar OpenAI from using the information, order the return of its documents, and preserve evidence. OpenAI has not yet responded in detail. You can read TechCrunch's report for more on the filing.

Why it matters

Trade secret fights rarely stop a product, but they shape who can hire whom. If you recruit hardware or ML talent from a rival, this case is a reminder that code names, sample parts, and old laptops are exactly what discovery will look for.