Apple sues OpenAI over alleged trade secret theft

Apple has filed a lawsuit accusing OpenAI of systematically stealing hardware trade secrets and breaching contracts across multiple levels of the organization. The 40-page complaint alleges that OpenAI personnel, from technical staff to hardware leadership, coordinated with business partners to extract confidential Apple information.

The scandal centers on two former Apple employees who joined OpenAI. Chang Liu, a senior electrical systems engineer who spent eight years at Apple, transferred to OpenAI in January 2026 and retained his corporate laptop. Liu discovered a security vulnerability that granted him access to Apple's internal servers, allowing him to download over 1,000 pages of technical files covering undisclosed technologies, features, and product specifications including engineering presentations. In a telling email to a former Apple colleague, Liu wrote: "LOL, I discovered I have access to the storage network, how fun."

Tang Tan, OpenAI's current hardware chief and a 24-year Apple veteran who served as VP of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch, faces separate allegations of misusing confidential Apple code names during OpenAI's hiring process and requesting candidates to bring Apple hardware components—implicating him in a broader pattern of intellectual property appropriation that threatens both OpenAI's first hardware product and raises serious questions about corporate security practices at Apple.