Apple files lawsuit accusing ChatGPT maker OpenAI of stealing trade
secrets
[July 11, 2026] By
KAITLYN HUAMANI and MATT O'BRIEN
Apple on Friday accused OpenAI of stealing trade secrets as it seeks to
build its own hardware for ChatGPT, a major rupture in a partnership
between the iPhone maker and the artificial intelligence company.
Apple said in the lawsuit filed in a California federal court that
OpenAI encouraged Apple employees it was recruiting to share
confidential information, even guiding how to avoid scrutiny when taking
jobs at the other company.
“This case is about Apple’s former employees stealing Apple’s trade
secrets for the benefit of OpenAI,” the filing says. “Apple brings this
suit to put a stop to it.”
Two former Apple employees who now work for OpenAI are also named as
defendants. One is Tang Tan, who helped design the iPhone, Apple Watch
and iPod and is now OpenAI’s chief hardware officer. The other is Chang
Liu, a former electrical engineer Apple says it entrusted with some of
its most sensitive product development efforts before Liu left Apple to
join OpenAI earlier this year.
OpenAI said it is still reviewing the filing, but spokesperson Drew
Pusateri said in a statement Friday that OpenAI has “no interest in
other companies’ trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative
technology that empowers people everywhere.”
The suit accuses OpenAI of seeking shortcuts on hardware
OpenAI has never said exactly what type of device it is building, but
has described it as an effort to find a new way to interact with AI that
goes beyond “traditional products and interfaces.” It’s part of a
broader push to create a physical embodiment of the latest AI advances,
a decade after Amazon and Google introduced screen-free talking speakers
into homes.
The lawsuit claims the effort was built partly on knowledge stolen from
Apple.
“OpenAI’s nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of
foundations, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on
misappropriated trade secrets,” the lawsuit says.
Apple said it began investigating whether some of its confidential
information was compromised and “uncovered a pattern of theft” of
Apple’s trade secrets by former employees who moved on to positions at
OpenAI.
The lawsuit alleges both Liu and Tan accessed Apple’s confidential
company information and files while working at OpenAI. Among the
allegations, Apple claims Liu accessed and downloaded several
confidential hardware-related files on an Apple-issued device he kept
after departing. It also alleges Tan directed job candidates who were
still working for Apple to bring “Actual parts” from Apple to their
interviews at OpenAI.
Apple said in the lawsuit that it reached out to OpenAI in February to
raise its concerns early in its investigation, but said that OpenAI did
not respond.
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The Apple logo is illuminated at a store in Munich, April 2, 2026.
(AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)
 An Apple spokesperson said in a
statement Friday that the company will “always defend our teams’
hard work and innovations, and we are taking all appropriate steps
to do so.”
A partnership with Apple has edged toward rivalry
Apple sought help from OpenAI several years ago as it was behind in
the AI race sparked by ChatGPT’s arrival. The two companies
partnered in 2024 to use ChatGPT as an AI-powered “answer engine” on
the iPhone when the built-in Siri technology couldn’t satisfy user
needs. More recently, the partnership has veered toward rivalry.
As part of its expansion efforts, OpenAI recruited former Apple
designer Jony Ive to oversee a project to build an AI-powered device
that many analysts believe could eventually challenge Apple’s
products.
Last year, OpenAI announced it was working on a secret hardware
collaboration with Ive to pioneer a new way of communicating with
artificial intelligence. As part of the collaboration, OpenAI
acquired io Products, a product and engineering company co-founded
by Ive, Tan and two others, in a deal valued at nearly $6.5 billion.
That led a little-known tech startup iyO Inc. to sue Ive and OpenAI
CEO Sam Altman for trademark infringement due to the
similar-sounding name and the firms’ past interactions. The startup
also sued one of its own former employees for allegedly leaking a
confidential drawing of iyO’s unreleased product, and it later added
trade secret theft claims against Tan to the lawsuit.
Apple’s lawsuit also names io Products as a defendant. Lawyers who
previously represented the firm and Tan referred The Associated
Press to OpenAI for comment.
Apple’s lawsuit comes as OpenAI has been exploring whether to go
public on Wall Street and faces heightened competition from rivals
including Anthropic and Google.
OpenAI winnowed down some of its business ventures earlier this year
to focus on its core product, ChatGPT, but has continued to pursue a
device, the company’s chief financial officer told The Associated
Press this spring.
“We have consumer hardware that will come towards the end of this
year,” CFO Sarah Friar told the AP in April.
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