Apple Takes OpenAI to Court Over Alleged Trade-Secret Theft
Companies usually hedge in legal complaints. Apple didn't. Its new lawsuit against OpenAI, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accuses the company of trade-secret misappropriation and breach of contract — and it doesn't pin the blame on a stray employee. Apple says the pattern runs all the way up to OpenAI's leadership.
The people at the center
Start with Tang Tan. He's OpenAI's chief hardware officer now, but he spent 24 years at Apple and left as the VP of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch. Apple claims he put that history to work in ways that broke the rules — dropping Apple's confidential code names into recruiting conversations, asking candidates to bring Apple hardware components to their interviews, and quietly coaching departing employees on how to get past Apple's security and exit procedures.
Then there's Chang Liu, a systems electrical engineer who'd been at Apple for eight years. The suit says he left for OpenAI in 2026 and never returned his work laptop — and that he used it to download confidential technical documents. Apple also alleges he fed inside information to other Apple employees who were interviewing at OpenAI, right down to telling one of them what to study first.
Why this one matters
Here's the part that raises the temperature. OpenAI is rumored to be working on its first hardware product — reportedly a device built around AI agents instead of apps, the kind of thing that could go head-to-head with the iPhone. Apple's filing says OpenAI's "nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations," and it points to a proprietary metal-finishing technique it claims OpenAI used after convincing a supplier, falsely, that Apple had approved it.
The suit also names io, the hardware startup from ex-Apple design chief Jony Ive that OpenAI bought last year for $6.5 billion. Ive himself wasn't named.
What Apple is asking for
Apple wants the court to bar OpenAI from using or sharing its trade secrets, to make it hand back any confidential materials, and to preserve evidence. That last one is telling — it's how you set up discovery, and Apple all but says it can't yet see what's happened inside OpenAI. The company also mentions it wrote to OpenAI back in February and heard nothing back.
OpenAI isn't budging. "We have no interest in other companies' trade secrets," spokesperson Drew Pusateri said, adding that the company stays "focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere."
The bigger picture
Lawsuits like this are rarely only about the documents. They're about slowing a competitor down and drawing the boundaries early. If OpenAI really is building hardware to rival the iPhone, Apple has every reason to make poaching its designers look expensive — and to get ahead of the story. This one won't resolve quickly, and the sharpest details will probably surface in discovery, not in Friday's filing.
Image: Tingey Injury Law Firm, via Unsplash
