Apple sues OpenAI alleging trade-secret theft of hardware designs
The suit names OpenAI hardware chief Tang Tan, a 24-year Apple veteran, and says Apple first raised its concerns in a February 2026 letter that went unanswered.
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Apple filed suit against OpenAI in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing the company of a coordinated campaign to obtain Apple’s confidential hardware designs as OpenAI builds consumer devices of its own. The complaint names OpenAI’s chief hardware officer, Tang Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple including as vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch, and Chang Liu, a former Apple electrical engineer who joined OpenAI in 2026. It also names io Products, the hardware venture co-founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive that OpenAI acquired.
Apple’s allegations include that Tan used Apple code names when recruiting, asked prospective hires to bring in Apple hardware components, coached departing employees on evading Apple’s security screening, and solicited details of unreleased Apple products. Separately, the complaint alleges Liu failed to return an Apple-issued laptop after leaving the company, downloaded confidential technical documents, and shared them with job applicants. Apple also alleged that OpenAI or its associates used confidential Apple information when approaching Apple’s manufacturing partners, in one case persuading a partner to carry out a specific metal-finishing technique developed for Apple products in the belief it had Apple’s permission.
Apple said it first raised concerns in a letter to OpenAI in February 2026 and received no response before filing suit in July. The company noted that more than 400 of its former employees now work at OpenAI, a figure it cited as context for the scale of the alleged conduct rather than as evidence in itself. Apple is seeking an injunction barring OpenAI from using or disclosing the disputed material, the return of confidential documents, and preservation of evidence.
OpenAI said in response that it had “no interest in other companies’ trade secrets” and remained focused on its own technology. The case set up a contest between the two companies just as both were building competing hardware products, and added a legal dimension to a hiring rivalry already visible in the wider AI talent market.