Apple sues OpenAI, alleges theft of trade secrets tied to ChatGPT hardware development
Signage at the Apple Fifth Avenue store in New York, US, on Monday, April 27, 2026. Apple Inc. is expected to release earnings figures on April 30. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Apple on Friday accused OpenAI of stealing trade secrets in its effort to develop hardware for ChatGPT, marking a major rupture in the partnership between the iPhone maker and the artificial intelligence company.
What they're saying:
Apple said in the lawsuit filed in a California federal court that OpenAI encouraged Apple employees it was recruiting to share confidential information, even guiding how to avoid scrutiny when taking jobs at the other company.
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"This case is about Apple’s former employees stealing Apple’s trade secrets for the benefit of OpenAI," the filing says. "Apple brings this suit to put a stop to it."
Dig deeper:
Two former Apple employees who now work for OpenAI are also named as defendants. One is Tang Tan, who helped design the iPhone, Apple Watch and iPod and is now OpenAI’s chief hardware officer. The other is Chang Liu, a former electrical engineer Apple says it entrusted with some of its most sensitive product development efforts before Liu left Apple to join OpenAI earlier this year.
The other side:
OpenAI said it is still reviewing the filing, but spokesperson Drew Pusateri said in a statement Friday that OpenAI has "no interest in other companies’ trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere."
OpenAI has never said exactly what type of device it is building, but has described it as an effort to find a new way to interact with AI that goes beyond "traditional products and interfaces." It’s part of a broader push to create a physical embodiment of the latest AI advances, a decade after Amazon and Google introduced screen-free talking speakers into homes.
The lawsuit claims the effort was built partly on knowledge stolen from Apple.
"OpenAI’s nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets," the lawsuit says.
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The backstory:
Apple said it began investigating whether some of its confidential information was compromised and "uncovered a pattern of theft" of Apple’s trade secrets by former employees who moved on to positions at OpenAI.
The lawsuit alleges both Liu and Tan accessed Apple’s confidential company information and files while working at OpenAI. Among the allegations, Apple claims Liu accessed and downloaded several confidential hardware-related files on an Apple-issued device he kept after departing. It also alleges Tan directed job candidates who were still working for Apple to bring "Actual parts" from Apple to their interviews at OpenAI.
Apple said in the lawsuit that it reached out to OpenAI in February to raise its concerns early in its investigation, but said that OpenAI did not respond.
An Apple spokesperson said in a statement Friday that the company will "always defend our teams’ hard work and innovations, and we are taking all appropriate steps to do so."
The Source: The Associated Press contributed to this report. The information in this story comes from Apple's lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in California, statements from Apple included in the court filing and through a company spokesperson, and a statement from OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri responding to the allegations. This story was reported from Los Angeles.