Apple has taken OpenAI to court, accusing the AI startup of building its hardware ambitions on stolen secrets. According to The Verge AI, Apple’s complaint describes “a pattern of theft of Apple’s trade secrets by OpenAI employees who were formerly at Apple.” The suit landed this week and names not just OpenAI, but IO Products (Jony Ive’s hardware startup that OpenAI bought in 2025) and two individual engineers: Tang Tan, OpenAI’s chief hardware officer, and Chang Liu, who left Apple for OpenAI in January.
This is one of the sharpest legal clashes yet between two of tech’s biggest names, and it strikes right at OpenAI’s next move: physical devices.
What Apple is claiming
The allegations are specific and pointed. As detailed in The Verge AI, Apple accuses the engineers of a coordinated effort to lift confidential hardware work.
- Chang Liu allegedly accessed Apple’s systems after leaving and downloaded “dozens of Apple’s confidential hardware-related files,” including details on unreleased products, engineering presentations, and technical specs.
- Liu is also said to have coached a former Apple colleague on how to copy confidential files and “avoid trouble” with Apple’s security team before she joined OpenAI, allegedly suggesting they talk over Line Messenger to dodge detection.
- Tang Tan allegedly emailed himself information about Apple suppliers before departing and asked for confidential Apple details while interviewing Apple staff for OpenAI roles.
- Apple claims OpenAI told departing Apple employees to bring “CAD/design artifacts” and “prototypes” to job interviews.
Apple frames this as more than a few rogue hires. “This is a systematic effort to acquire, retain, and use Apple’s trade secrets to help OpenAI try to replicate the secret technologies, business processes, and supply chain innovations that took Apple decades to build,” the complaint says.
The company also alleges OpenAI went after its supply chain directly, pointing to an Apple partner that works on industrial design and metal-finishing techniques and allegedly ran “Apple’s proprietary, trade secret processes for OpenAI’s benefit.”
OpenAI pushes back
OpenAI isn’t backing down. Spokesperson Drew Pusateri told The Verge, “We have no interest in other companies’ trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.”
Apple, for its part, says it flagged concerns to OpenAI back in February and asked what the company was doing to investigate. Its answer, according to the suit: “OpenAI never responded.”
Why this matters
What stands out here is the scale and the timing. Apple claims more than 400 former Apple staffers now work at OpenAI. Talent moving between rivals is normal in tech. Allegations that departing employees were coached to copy files and hide communications are not, and that’s the line Apple is drawing.
The timing is the real pressure point. OpenAI’s first hardware product, the device tied to Jony Ive’s team, is expected next year. Apple is openly trying to cast doubt on OpenAI’s ability to ship at all without leaning on Apple’s work. “OpenAI’s nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations,” the lawsuit says, “rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets.”
That’s not just legal language. It’s a strategic shot at a product OpenAI hasn’t even revealed yet.
What to watch next
Trade secret cases are slow and heavy on evidence, so don’t expect a quick resolution. A few things worth tracking:
- Discovery. Apple says “significant evidence has emerged.” What surfaces in court could reshape how much of OpenAI’s hardware roadmap depends on outside work.
- Hiring practices industry-wide. A high-profile win for Apple could tighten how AI companies recruit from hardware giants.
- OpenAI’s device launch. Watch whether this litigation slows the timeline or the messaging around next year’s debut.
This fight is about far more than two departing engineers. It’s about who controls the know-how behind the next wave of AI hardware. You can find the full complaint and further detail at the original report from The Verge AI.