Apple Sues OpenAI for Trade-Secret Theft: "At Every Level," Says the Complaint
Apple filed a blockbuster suit in federal court claiming OpenAI systematically stole its hardware secrets — 400+ ex-Apple employees, "show and tell" interviews with real parts, and an engineer who allegedly kept his Apple laptop and kept downloading.
The biggest company in consumer hardware just declared legal war on the biggest name in AI. Apple sued OpenAI in federal court in Northern California on July 10, alleging systematic theft of trade secrets to build OpenAI's own consumer hardware. The complaint's language is unusually blunt: "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," per CNBC and Bloomberg.
Not just poaching — extraction
OpenAI now employs more than 400 former Apple employees, many from the silicon and on-device AI teams. Apple's complaint frames that not as normal Silicon Valley job-hopping but as coordinated extraction of confidential technology. The suit names four defendants: OpenAI, its hardware subsidiary IO Products, chief hardware officer Tang Tan (a former Apple VP), and former Apple engineer Chang Liu.
The ugliest allegations
Two claims stand out. First, Apple alleges Tang Tan directed Apple employees interviewing at OpenAI to bring "actual parts" from Apple to their interviews for "show and tell" sessions. Second, it alleges Chang Liu kept his Apple-issued laptop after leaving, discovered a bug that let him reach Apple's cloud file storage, and downloaded dozens of confidential files from Apple's network while already employed at OpenAI, per TechCrunch.
What Apple wants — and what's really at stake
Apple asks the court to bar OpenAI from using or disclosing its trade secrets, force the return of confidential materials, and preserve evidence. Notably absent so far: a headline damages figure — this reads as a suit aimed at slowing OpenAI's hardware program, the io device effort built around Jony Ive's design team, before it reaches market.
The subtext is existential for both sides. OpenAI's first consumer device is widely expected to challenge the iPhone's role as the default AI interface — and it was built, Apple claims, by Apple's own former engineers. Coming the same week OpenAI shipped GPT-5.6 and its GPT-Live voice models, the suit is a reminder that OpenAI's fiercest fight this year may happen in a courtroom, not on a benchmark.
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