What Apple accuses OpenAI of in explosive trade secret lawsuit? A laptop ‘not returned’, secret interviews, & more

Apple has filed trade secrets lawsuit against Sam Altman's OpenAI, alleging the ChatGPT maker stole trade secrets. In a filing, Apple claimed that employees who went to OpenAI had access to its systems after leaving. Apple has also argued that OpenAI's hardware business is "rotten to its core" and built on stolen secrets.

Apple's trade secret lawsuit against OpenAI, filed on Friday (10 July) in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, sets out what Apple describes as "a coordinated pattern of misconduct at an institutional level" stretching from junior technical staff to OpenAI's most senior hardware executive.

Apple's missing laptop and OpenAI's security bug

Apple's inquiry traces back to the January 2026 departure of Chang Liu, a former Apple engineer who moved to OpenAI. According to the complaint, Liu failed to return his company-issued laptop and subsequently found he was still able to reach Apple's internal systems, a lapse Apple attributes to an authentication bug.

Rather than flag the flaw, Apple alleges, Chang Liu used the ongoing access to download dozens of confidential engineering files while employed at OpenAI, including material on unreleased products, technical specifications, presentations and manufacturing processes.

How OpenAI staff dodged Apple's security checks, lawsuit claims

Apple further alleges that Chang Liu advised a serving Apple engineer who was interviewing at OpenAI to study confidential Apple material ahead of her interviews, and coached her on how to copy files without alerting Apple's security team.

The two are said to have shifted their conversations to a private messaging app specifically to avoid detection, according to the filing.

When an OpenAI job interview became a fishing trip for Apple secrets

Central to Apple's case is the claim that OpenAI's recruitment process doubled as a vehicle for extracting proprietary information. OpenAI has become one of the most sought-after employers in technology as it prepares initial paperwork for a stock market listing, and Apple says a wave of its hardware engineers has since joined the AI firm.

Apple's complaint names Tang Tan, OpenAI's chief hardware officer and a former Apple vice president who spent 24 years at the company, as having asked Apple job candidates to bring physical components into interviews for "show and tell" sessions. OpenAI staff are also alleged to have pressed candidates for prototypes and supplier information.

Apple's filing describes one former employee who screenshotted and downloaded files from what it calls a "highly confidential Apple project," claiming Tan subsequently raised that same project during the individual's interview.

"OpenAI's recruiting practices suggest it hires these individuals at least in part because of the confidential Apple-specific knowledge and expertise they have and could improperly obtain," the complaint states.

'Tip of the iceberg': Apple's warning ignored

Apple says it approached OpenAI earlier this year to raise its concerns and asked the company to examine whether its confidential information had made its way into OpenAI's operations. Apple states that OpenAI never responded, prompting it to press ahead with its own investigation before filing suit.

"This is the tip of the iceberg," the complaint reads. “Apple lacks visibility into what's been happening behind closed doors at OpenAI, where such misconduct is normalized and exemplified by leadership.”

It continues: "This much is clear, however: at every level, from members of its Technical Staff to its Chief Hardware Officer, and in coordination with business partners, OpenAI has been stealing Apple's trade secrets and confidential information. As a natural result, 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 says it is "left with no choice" but to pursue damages, to be determined at trial, along with court orders barring OpenAI and the named individual defendants from possessing or using its trade secrets.

From ChatGPT ally to courtroom rival

The trade secret lawsuit from Apple marks a striking reversal for two companies that, in 2024, struck one of the most closely watched partnerships in Silicon Valley, when ChatGPT was folded into Apple Intelligence.

Relations have since cooled as OpenAI pushed further into consumer hardware, recruiting former Apple executives and engineers along the way, among them Jony Ive, Apple's former chief design officer, whose startup io Products was acquired by OpenAI.

It is not the only legal battle clouding OpenAI's path towards a widely anticipated stock market listing. Sam Altman's company remains locked in litigation with The New York Times over allegations that it trained its systems on copyrighted material without authorisation.

OpenAI also recently emerged from a separate courtroom fight with Elon Musk, who had accused chief executive Sam Altman and company president Greg Brockman of "stealing" the original OpenAI non-profit and enriching themselves by converting it into a for-profit venture. In May, a jury sided with OpenAI, ruling that Musk had missed the three-year statute of limitations required to bring his claim.