Apple has taken legal action against artificial intelligence company OpenAI and two of its former employees, accusing them of stealing confidential company information to give OpenAI an advantage as it moves into the consumer hardware market. The lawsuit was filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The complaint names Chang Liu, who previously served as a senior system electrical engineer at Apple, and Tang Yew Tan, a former Vice President of Product Design for iPhone and Apple Watch. OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC, and io Products are also listed as defendants. None of the parties responded immediately to requests for comment.
According to Apple’s filing, Liu failed to return a company-issued laptop after leaving the company and later exploited an authentication vulnerability to gain access to Apple’s internal network, where he allegedly downloaded “dozens of Apple’s confidential hardware-related files.”
Apple further claims that Tan, who now serves as OpenAI’s hardware chief, was “methodically using Apple’s confidential information to benefit OpenAI” — including emailing himself details about Apple suppliers and internal industry summaries before his departure from the company.
The lawsuit also alleges that Tan encouraged Apple workers to bring company parts to job interviews at OpenAI for what were described as “show and tell” sessions. Apple’s filing references one incident in which a job candidate at OpenAI reportedly said he “didn’t even know we could take those from the office.”
Apple noted in the filing that more than 400 of its former employees now work at OpenAI, adding that “it is not surprising” that some of them possess knowledge of its confidential information. However, the company was direct in its position: “That OpenAI now employs people who were once entrusted with Apple’s trade secrets does not entitle OpenAI to use that information to jumpstart its hardware efforts.”
The suit also alleges that OpenAI employees reached out to Apple suppliers seeking confidential information, with one supplier allegedly being asked to perform what Apple described as a secret metal finishing technique — under the mistaken belief that OpenAI had Apple’s authorization to use it.
OpenAI’s interest in consumer hardware grew significantly after it acquired the startup io Products — founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive — in a $6.5 billion deal last year. Ive is not named in the lawsuit.
The legal battle has been building for some time. Apple stated in its complaint that it reached out to OpenAI back in February, expressing concern that its confidential information was ending up in OpenAI’s hands and requesting a conversation about the issue. Apple says it received no response. A source familiar with the situation told Reuters in May that OpenAI had been weighing its own legal options against Apple, though it was considering stopping short of a full lawsuit.
Despite the conflict, the two companies have maintained a business partnership. In 2024, Apple announced that its “Apple Intelligence” platform would be integrated across its apps, including Siri, and that ChatGPT would be made available on Apple devices. The arrangement lets users pull up ChatGPT results through Siri, and iPhone users can sign up for ChatGPT memberships directly through their iOS settings.
Apple also recently rolled out a long-awaited redesign of Siri — an update that came two years after the company first promised significant improvements that were repeatedly pushed back.
