Apple Sues OpenAI, Alleging Stolen Hardware Secrets
Apple claims two former employees took confidential files about unreleased products and shared them with OpenAI, in what the company calls a systematic effort to replicate decades of hardware work.
Key points
- Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI alleging that former Apple engineers stole trade secrets to help OpenAI build its first hardware product.
- The suit names two individuals: Tang Tan, OpenAI's chief hardware officer, and Chang Liu, who joined OpenAI from Apple in January 2025.
- IO Products, the hardware startup founded by designer Jony Ive and acquired by OpenAI in 2025, is also named as a defendant.
- Apple claims more than 400 former Apple staff now work at OpenAI.
- Apple says it contacted OpenAI in February 2025 to raise concerns and received no reply.
Apple has sued OpenAI, accusing the AI company of building its hardware business on stolen secrets. The lawsuit, first reported by The Verge, claims two former Apple engineers took confidential files about unreleased products and handed them to OpenAI.
The two employees named are Tang Tan, now OpenAI's chief hardware officer, and Chang Liu, who moved from Apple to OpenAI in January 2025. Also named is IO Products, a hardware startup founded by legendary Apple designer Jony Ive that OpenAI bought in 2025.
Apple's complaint paints a detailed picture. Liu allegedly accessed Apple's internal systems after he had already left the company, then downloaded dozens of confidential files covering unreleased products, engineering presentations, and technical specifications. Apple says he also coached a former colleague on how to copy confidential files and dodge Apple's security monitoring, telling her to use Line Messenger, a private messaging app, to avoid detection.
Tan is accused of emailing himself information about Apple's suppliers before leaving, and of asking candidates he interviewed for OpenAI roles to bring along Apple's confidential design files and physical prototypes.
The scale alleged is striking. Apple claims OpenAI has been quietly approaching its prized manufacturing partners too, including one supplier that specialises in industrial design and metal-finishing, allegedly directing that partner to carry out Apple's proprietary processes for OpenAI's benefit instead.
What does this mean for OpenAI's upcoming hardware?
OpenAI's first consumer hardware device is expected to launch next year, and this lawsuit puts that timeline under real pressure. Apple is blunt in its filing: "OpenAI's nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets."
OpenAI disputes this entirely. A spokesperson told reporters: "We have no interest in other companies' trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere."
For ordinary people waiting to see what OpenAI's hardware looks like, the lawsuit is a signal that legal battles may slow or reshape whatever the company has planned.
Apple says it raised its concerns with OpenAI in February 2025 and received no response. The suit followed. What happens in court could set important limits on how freely AI companies can recruit from rivals and how seriously courts treat confidentiality agreements when engineers cross from one tech giant to another.
