Apple sued OpenAI on Friday, July 10, alleging that OpenAI, its hardware subsidiary io Products, and two former Apple employees, Tang Tan and Chang Liu, ran a coordinated scheme to steal trade secrets for OpenAI's push into consumer hardware.
It's a stunning reversal for two companies that were partners just two years ago. Apple needed ChatGPT to catch up in AI, OpenAI needed Apple's reach, and now that relationship is heading to federal court.
“OpenAI’s nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets,” Apple wrote in its complaint.
David Adubiina
/1. A former engineer allegedly kept his Apple laptop and used it to dig around Apple's network
Chang Liu, a former senior systems electrical engineer, left Apple for OpenAI in January 2026 but allegedly never returned his work laptop. Apple claims he exploited an authentication bug to get into Apple's internal network and download confidential files on unreleased products, engineering presentations, and technical specs.
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