Apple (AAPL) has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and two of its former employees, accusing them of stealing confidential information about its unreleased technologies and products.
The iPhone maker filed the suit on Friday in a California federal court, claiming the alleged theft formed part of a “coordinated pattern of misconduct” normalised by senior leadership at OpenAI.
Apple alleged that OpenAI used both current and former employees to obtain hardware designs as the ChatGPT maker prepares to launch its own AI-focused consumer devices that could rival Apple products.
Apple stated: “Significant evidence has emerged suggesting individuals employed by OpenAI wrongfully took Apple’s secret and confidential information regarding our unreleased technologies, processes and products.”
The lawsuit marks a dramatic breakdown in relations between the two tech giants as each moves deeper into the other’s territory.
Apple launched its own ChatGPT-like Siri model in June, while OpenAI signalled its hardware ambitions when it acquired io, the design studio led by former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive, for $6.4 billion in May 2025.
Ive is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, though Apple claims over 400 of its former employees now work at OpenAI following a sustained period of recruitment.
Apple said it launched an internal investigation into the alleged trade secret theft in February, warned OpenAI directly, but received no response from the company.
Apple alleged the evidence uncovered so far was merely the “tip of the iceberg” and that OpenAI’s “nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets.”
Two former Apple employees are named individually as defendants in the lawsuit, with Apple setting out specific allegations against each of them.
Tang Tan, now OpenAI’s chief hardware officer, left Apple in early 2024 after a career spanning more than 20 years, during which he served as vice-president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch.
Apple claimed Tan “has been methodically using Apple’s confidential information to benefit OpenAI” by emailing himself supplier data and internal industry summaries before his departure from the company.
The lawsuit further alleged that when “interviewing Apple employees for jobs at OpenAI, Mr Tan uses Apple’s confidential information to gain access to even more insider knowledge.”
Chang Liu, a former Apple electrical engineer who worked on some of the company’s “most sensitive product development programs,” joined OpenAI in January and is the second named defendant.
Apple alleged that Liu failed to return a company-issued laptop and later exploited an authentication bug to access Apple’s internal network, downloading “dozens of Apple’s confidential hardware-related files.”
OpenAI responded to the lawsuit by saying: “We have no interest in other companies’ trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.”