Apple has filed a lawsuit alleging that OpenAI hired away former Apple employees who allegedly used confidential information and trade secrets to aid in the creation of competing hardware devices.
The complaint, submitted last Friday, is a radical turnaround in the relationship between the two technology companies, which joined forces in 2024 to introduce ChatGPT capabilities to Apple devices.
According to Apple’s lawsuit, OpenAI’s expanding hardware division was constructed on the back of Apple’s proprietary information regarding future technologies, manufacturing processes and product designs.
Not long ago, there was substantial evidence that people working for OpenAI had stolen Apple’s confidential and proprietary information about our not-yet-released technologies, processes and products,” stated an Apple spokesperson.
According to Apple’s filing, OpenAI’s hardware unit is “on the shakiest of foundations” because it allegedly was built from “misappropriated trade secrets.
The lawsuit includes Tang Yew Tan, who served as OpenAI’s chief hardware officer and was an Apple vice president. The lawsuit says Apple is suing Tan for breaching the company’s confidentiality by retaining third-party information acquired while working there and urging current employees who were searching for jobs elsewhere to stop by the company’s “show and tell” sessions with interested parties.
Chang Liu is another former employee of Apple who is being charged for taking an Apple laptop upon his dismissal and gaining access to the company’s internal network through a security exploit. Liu has been accused of downloading dozens of sensitive hardware-related documents.
OpenAI is looking into the legal action.
OpenAI’s spokesperson Drew Pusateri said that the company has no interest in other companies’ trade secrets. Our goal continues to be to develop innovative technology that enables people all over the world.
This battle marks a drastic turnaround from the companies’ previous partnership. In 2024, Apple added ChatGPT integration to its mobile operating systems (iPhone and iPad) and to Mac OS. Google’s Gemini model, however, was used to power the AI features, rather than ChatGPT, when the company released its new Siri assistant last month.
The companies’ relations had already been sour due to OpenAI’s purchase of io Products, the hardware startup led by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, for $6.4 billion. The startup also is listed as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Apple wants OpenAI to provide financial damages, plus a court order barring it from holding or using any confidential data that it states it had a connection with Apple.
The case also serves as an example of the general issues involved in protecting IP rights in a technology field where there is a growing trend to transfer employees from one competing company to the other. To protect trade secrets, companies may use confidentiality agreements and limit access to the information, as well as carefully manage the procedures for exiting.
With the push for competition in the field of AI hardware, the lawsuit is likely to be one of the most watched legal battles in the tech industry.
