Apple Sues OpenAI, Alleges Trade Secret Theft by Former Employees

Tech giant Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI on Friday, accusing the artificial intelligence firm and two former Apple employees of stealing trade secrets.

The suit alleges OpenAI and the employees aggressively worked to poach Apple staff and to obtain confidential information on Apple hardware.

In response to the allegations, a spokesperson for OpenAI said in a statement that the company has "no interest in other companies' trade secrets."

"We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere," the spokesperson added.

Security bug and Apple 'show and tell' sessions

Apple said it had found a "pattern of theft" of its trade secrets by former employees who had moved to OpenAI, starting with a former engineer named as Chang Liu.

According to the complaint, Liu, who worked as a senior system electrical engineer at Apple, left the firm in January 2026 to join OpenAI and failed to return a company laptop or schedule an exit interview.

It said Liu later discovered an "authentication bug" that allowed him to access Apple's internal systems. He went on to "surreptitiously" download dozens of confidential files relating to Apple hardware, including information on unreleased products, technical specifications, and engineering presentations, it added.

Liu was also accused of having "coached" a former Apple colleague as he attempted to recruit her to OpenAI, advising her how to avoid getting flagged by Apple's security team while copying files and suggesting which confidential material she should study in preparation for an interview.

The suit also accuses OpenAI's chief hardware officer Tang Yew Tan of "methodically using Apple's confidential information to benefit OpenAI".

Tan, it said, had been entrusted with some of Apple's "most sensitive projects" in his 24 years at the company, where he was the vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch.

In the months leading up to his departure from Apple, the complaint said Tan had started to email himself information relating to Apple's suppliers as well as "internal summaries of the consumer electronics industry".

After making the switch to OpenAI, the lawsuit also accused Tan of using interviews to attempt to extract information on Apple products out of candidates, requesting that interviewees bring "actual" Apple parts for "show and tell" sessions.

'Tip of the iceberg'

Apple described its findings as the "tip of the iceberg," as it "lacks visibility into what has been happening behind closed doors at OpenAI, where such misconduct is normalised and exemplified by leadership".

It added that OpenAI's "nascent hardware business" was now "on the shakiest of foundations, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets".

Codex Micro

In June, OpenAI teased the release of a new hardware product, the Codex Micro, a small programmable keyboard known as a macro pad. Codex is the company's AI-powered coding agent.

A teaser trailer for the product appears to show a small, branded desk gadget.

The caption reads: "Your favorite Codex shortcuts are getting an upgrade. July 15th."