Apple sues OpenAI, alleges hardware trade secret theft

Job interviews usually involve a slide deck and some polite networking, not a request to sneak unreleased circuit boards out of your current employer's office. Yet that is precisely what Apple claims happened.

On Friday, Apple filed an aggressive 41-page lawsuit against OpenAI in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging widespread trade secret theft and breach of contract. Apple claims OpenAI senior leadership systematically targeted Apple engineers to siphon proprietary technology for its upcoming AI hardware.

Show and tell with confidential hardware

The central figure in the lawsuit is Tang Tan, an Apple veteran of 24 years who previously served as VP of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch. Tan left in 2024 to join Jony Ive's hardware startup io, which OpenAI snapped up last year in a $6.5 billion deal, naming Tan its chief hardware officer.

According to Apple, Tan actively dug for secret information during OpenAI job interviews, quiz candidates on unreleased projects, and instruct Apple employees to bring in physical hardware samples—including batteries, System-in-Package modules, logic boards, and shields—for live show-and-tell sessions.

The complaint also details the actions of Chang Liu, an eight-year Apple hardware engineer who joined OpenAI in January 2026. Apple says Liu kept a company laptop, skipped mandatory exit interviews, and exploited an unknown authentication loophole to access Apple cloud servers weeks after leaving, allegedly texting another colleague that he found out he still had access. That colleague, Alyssa Peng, also fed Liu confidential product specs before she too left Apple for OpenAI in April 2026. Apple even alleges OpenAI tricked a supplier into applying Apple's proprietary metal finishing technique to its own prototypes.

Apple noted it sent a warning letter in February that went unanswered. OpenAI pushed back in a post on X, stating it has no interest in other companies' trade secrets and remains focused on building innovative technology.

Why it matters

We think this lawsuit is less about standard Silicon Valley talent poaching and more about Apple feeling genuinely threatened by OpenAI's hardware ambitions. Industry whispers, including notes from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, suggest OpenAI wants to launch an agent-first device next year that bypasses the traditional app store model entirely.

By dragging OpenAI into federal court right now, Apple accomplishes an immediate strategic goal: freezing OpenAI's hardware momentum. The discovery process allows Apple to look directly under the hood of OpenAI's device division, and the looming legal cloud will make manufacturing partners extremely hesitant to touch OpenAI contracts.

Acquiring seasoned hardware veterans was OpenAI's only realistic shortcut to rivaling consumer hardware titans. But if Apple's evidence holds up, OpenAI's willingness to cut corners around basic IP compliance looks like a massive operational liability that could derail its hardware dreams before they ever reach store shelves.