Apple Sues OpenAI Over Alleged Trade Secret Theft by Former Engineers

Apple filed a federal lawsuit on July 10, 2026, naming OpenAI, Tang Tan (OpenAI's Chief Hardware Officer and former Apple VP), and Chang Liu (a former Apple iPhone engineer) as defendants, alleging a coordinated scheme to misappropriate hardware trade secrets [1][5]. Apple's complaint describes Tang Tan as directing former Apple employees to share confidential information during job recruitment interviews, and Chang Liu as exploiting a software bug to download proprietary files after departing for OpenAI [5][6]. Apple frames this as an effort by OpenAI to take an 'unlawful shortcut' toward building AI-powered consumer hardware competitive with Apple's own devices [5]. As of July 16, OpenAI has not issued a public response.

Apple and OpenAI are competing to build AI-powered consumer hardware, and the injunctions Apple seeks — if granted — could block OpenAI's hardware division from using any of the allegedly obtained information. The case sits against an unusual backdrop: Apple and OpenAI also have an active commercial partnership through Apple Intelligence, which surfaces OpenAI's models to iPhone users, making them simultaneous partners and legal adversaries.

Apple filed suit in federal court on July 10, 2026, naming OpenAI and two former Apple employees — Tang Tan and Chang Liu — as defendants [1][2]. Tang Tan, who left Apple's senior hardware leadership to become OpenAI's Chief Hardware Officer, is the complaint's central figure: Apple alleges he orchestrated a scheme to extract confidential hardware knowledge from former Apple colleagues through job interview conversations [3][4]. The underlying claim is that OpenAI used this information as an 'unlawful shortcut' to develop AI-powered consumer devices intended to compete with the iPhone [5].

The Chang Liu thread of the complaint centers on a specific technical incident. Liu, a former iPhone engineer who joined OpenAI's hardware division, allegedly discovered after his departure from Apple that a software bug had left him with continuing access to Apple's internal network storage [5][6]. Reporting on the complaint quotes Liu as writing 'lol I found out I can access the network storage,' after which he allegedly downloaded confidential files [7]. A third former Apple employee, Yu-Ting 'Alyssa' Peng, is also named in the complaint [5]. Apple is seeking multiple injunctions to prevent OpenAI from using any information obtained through these alleged means.

Analyst Zvi Mowshowitz, reviewing the complaint's cited evidence including message transcripts, concluded that 'OpenAI totally did what they are accused of doing' and described a broad preliminary injunction as likely [3]. He added, however, that he finds the scope of the legal remedies Apple seeks 'crazy and harmful,' noting he sympathizes with OpenAI's likely view that the lawsuit overreaches even if the underlying conduct was wrong [3].

OpenAI had not issued a public statement on the lawsuit as of July 16, 2026. Wide coverage emerged immediately after the July 10 filing, with the most detailed accounts of specific allegations appearing in reporting from July 13 onward [5][6][8].