Apple sued OpenAI on Friday, accusing the company of stealing the iPhone maker’s trade secrets to develop its own undisclosed AI gadgets.
In the lawsuit, filed in Northern California District Court, Apple accuses OpenAI of misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of contract.
OpenAI announced last year that it was collaborating with Apple’s former head of design on a secret project to build a device aimed at ushering smartphone users into the age of AI.
The device is scheduled to be announced later this year, but this lawsuit could be a major blow to those plans. The lawsuit could also complicate OpenAI’s plans to soon go public in a much-anticipated major IPO.
“We are not interested in other companies’ trade secrets,” said OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri. “We remain focused on building innovative technologies that empower people everywhere.”
The lawsuit names OpenAI. OpenAI’s Chang Liu, a former Apple engineer, and OpenAI hardware chief Tang Tan, who previously led product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch. The lawsuit also names IO Products, a company founded by Jony Ive, who was Apple’s head of design until 2019 and helped create the iPhone. The lawsuit does not name Ive as a defendant or accuse him of wrongdoing. OpenAI acquired io last year.
Apple claims that Liu and Tan played key roles in the theft. Liu left Apple to join OpenAI in January 2026, but did not respond to Apple’s attempts to sign confidentiality reminders, schedule an exit interview, and confirm that he returned company devices, Apple alleged in the lawsuit. In addition to failing to return a workplace-issued laptop, he also gained access to a former co-worker’s work computer after leaving the company, according to the complaint.
The complaint alleges that Liu accessed and downloaded “dozens of confidential Apple hardware-related files containing large amounts of detailed information about unreleased products, technical presentations, technical specifications, and proprietary project data.”
Apple alleges that Tan used confidential company information when recruiting candidates, including instructing them to bring Apple parts during the interview process. It also alleges that Tan and OpenAI instructed Apple employees on how to resign.
Apple also alleges that Tan told OpenAI about important meetings with Apple’s suppliers and emailed information about those suppliers to him before leaving his position.
The company also said it found evidence that other former Apple employees took confidential information with them when they left to work at OpenAI.
“At Apple, our teams are constantly developing breakthrough technologies to create the best products and services in the world, and protecting their work and intellectual property is something we take very seriously,” Apple said in a statement.
In its lawsuit, Apple said it contacted OpenAI to express its concerns when the investigation was in its early stages, but received no response.
The lawsuit also represents a breakdown in the relationship between the two companies, which announced a partnership to begin integrating ChatGPT into Apple products in 2024. But in May, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI was considering a lawsuit against Apple for breach of contract over claims that Apple did not adequately integrate and promote OpenAI’s products across its devices.
OpenAI has aggressively poached current and former Apple leadership and engineering talent, primarily to build a dedicated hardware division.
OpenAI recently hired at least 10 engineers who joined the AI company directly from Apple, according to a CNN tally of LinkedIn profiles.
The case highlights the high-stakes competition among tech giants for dominance in the AI era. OpenAI has made significant changes to its product strategy, aiming to put ChatGPT at the center of consumers’ digital lives. And later this year, Apple plans to launch a long-awaited improved version of Siri that will allow Siri to work together across apps and see your iPhone data to personalize answers.
OpenAI hasn’t said much publicly about its secretive hardware project. The Information reported that OpenAI is working on a smart speaker, while The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI’s devices will recognize the user’s surroundings.
AI is reshaping the way people interact with technology, and this type of hardware effort is part of tech companies’ efforts to stay at the forefront of these changes. Big tech companies largely believe that as AI agents become more capable of handling everyday tasks, consumers may need to use apps and interact with screens less.
This story has been updated with additional information.
