Apple accuses OpenAI of stealing secrets for AI hardware

Apple has filed a 41-page lawsuit against OpenAI that details an alleged scheme to steal confidential information as the startup develops its first AI hardware device scheduled for next year.

Two former Apple employees are named as defendants alongside OpenAI. Tang Tan, a 24-year Apple veteran and former vice president of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch, left in 2024 to join Jony Ive’s hardware company io, which OpenAI acquired last year before appointing him chief hardware officer. Chang Liu, who worked as a systems electrical engineer on the iPhone for over eight years, joined OpenAI in January 2026 as a member of technical staff. Yu-Ting “Alyssa” Peng, another former Apple employee later hired by OpenAI in April 2026, is described extensively in the complaint as an alleged conduit but is not a named defendant.

The complaint accuses the named defendants of participating in an ongoing effort to obtain Apple’s trade secrets to support OpenAI’s competing hardware plans.

Liu allegedly retained an Apple computer and exploited an unknown authentication vulnerability. After announcing his departure, Liu reportedly failed to sign a confidentiality reminder, attend an exit interview, or confirm the return of company devices. Apple claims he kept at least one Apple-owned computer and told Peng he had another. Weeks after leaving, Liu accessed Apple’s cloud-based network storage through a vulnerability the company did not know existed. The filing quotes him telling Peng, “LOL, I found out I can access the [network storage], so funny,” to which she replied, “I’m ready.”

Liu is accused of downloading dozens of confidential files containing technical specifications, details about unreleased products, and engineering presentations on manufacturing and testing Apple’s main logic boards.

Peng allegedly fed Liu a steady stream of Apple secrets after his departure. In the months following Liu’s exit, Peng reportedly kept him informed about Apple’s projects, engineering details, and vendor relationships while he worked on OpenAI’s hardware. The lawsuit states that Liu’s OpenAI work was informed by this flow of Apple’s trade secret information from Peng. It further claims Liu coached Peng on how to access and copy files from Apple devices to avoid detection by the security team and directed her to specific project folders and proprietary engineering data. Peng left Apple for OpenAI in April 2026.

OpenAI’s hardware head allegedly requested unreleased samples during interviews. When Apple employees interviewed for jobs at OpenAI, the startup’s hardware head is accused of asking them to bring components they were working on and unreleased product samples. The complaint also alleges that OpenAI coached Apple employees on avoiding security checks, stole confidential documents, spied on hardware prototypes, and tricked one of Apple’s trusted partners into performing a proprietary product design technique.

The lawsuit centers on these actions as OpenAI prepares to launch its first AI hardware device next year. (Source: The Verge)