Apple Sues OpenAI Over Stolen iPhone Blueprints in Hardware Fight

Apple sued OpenAI on Friday, accusing the ChatGPT maker of stealing iPhone and Apple Watch trade secrets for its own hardware line. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, names OpenAI’s chief hardware officer and a former Apple engineer as defendants alongside OpenAI itself and its io Products division.

A small startup called iyO made a nearly identical accusation against that same executive four months earlier. Apple’s own filing suggests the pattern runs deeper than one missing laptop.

The Show-and-Tell Interviews

Most of Apple’s evidence centers on Tang Tan, OpenAI’s chief hardware officer and a former Apple vice president of product design. Apple says Tan used his insider knowledge of the company’s hiring and exit procedures to turn OpenAI job interviews into extraction sessions.

“He has directed job candidates still working for Apple to bring ‘actual parts’ from Apple to their interviews for ‘show and tell’ sessions in which he and his team at OpenAI can elicit still more Apple confidential information,” Apple said in the filing.

The complaint also says Tan used Apple’s internal project codenames while pitching recruits. He forwarded confidential supplier information to his personal email before he left the company, Apple claims.

After his departure, Apple says, Tan kept or obtained an internal document called “Need to Know” that laid out security steps for exiting employees. He then shared it with new OpenAI hires so they could dodge those same checks.

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.

Apple’s lawyers wrote that line into the complaint filed Friday, adding that OpenAI’s hardware business now rests on what they called “the shakiest of foundations.”

An Apple spokesperson said the company’s teams are “constantly developing breakthrough technologies” and that protecting that work is something it takes “very seriously.”

OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri pushed back the same day. “We have no interest in other companies’ trade secrets,” he said. “We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.”

The Laptop That Reopened Apple’s Network

Chang Liu, a former senior systems electrical engineer who spent eight years at Apple, left the company for OpenAI in January 2026. He never returned his Apple-issued laptop, according to the complaint.

Apple says Liu then found an authentication bug that let him log into a former colleague’s account and reach the company’s internal file storage. He downloaded dozens of confidential files, including engineering presentations, technical specifications and roadmaps for products Apple has not announced.

Liu seemed to find the access amusing. “LOL, I found out I can access the [network storage], so funny,” he wrote to a former colleague still employed at Apple, according to the filing.

Apple’s complaint reaches beyond its own recruits too. It alleges OpenAI approached one of Apple’s contract manufacturers about a proprietary metal finishing process, misleading the supplier into believing Apple had approved the request.

Apple Was Already Cutting OpenAI Out of Siri

Apple turned to OpenAI in 2024 because it was behind in the AI race ChatGPT had just triggered. The deal let Siri hand off complex questions to ChatGPT whenever Apple’s own assistant fell short.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman visited Apple’s headquarters in 2024 when the two companies announced that partnership.

That goodwill faded once OpenAI moved into hardware. The company paid nearly $6.5 billion last year for io Products, the design studio Jony Ive built with Tan and two others.

Ive began overseeing what OpenAI has only described as a way to interact with AI beyond “traditional products and interfaces.”

Apple has since pulled away. It said in June that its rebuilt Siri, due this fall, will run on Google’s Gemini models instead of OpenAI’s technology. A footnote in Apple’s complaint adds that the ChatGPT licensing deal “is not at issue here” and has “no connection” to the trade secret claims.

The frustration ran both directions. Bloomberg reported in May that OpenAI was weighing legal action of its own against Apple, arguing Apple never gave ChatGPT meaningful placement on the iPhone. A person familiar with the matter later told Reuters that OpenAI was exploring options short of a full lawsuit, including a breach of contract notice.

iyO Already Accused Tan of Nearly the Same Thing

Apple is not the first party to accuse Tan’s hardware group of absorbing someone else’s work. A small voice-computing startup called iyO sued Ive and Altman for trademark infringement shortly after the io acquisition closed, arguing the similar-sounding names caused confusion in the market.

iyO amended that lawsuit in March 2026 to add trade secret misappropriation claims against Tan directly. The startup alleged a former iyO engineer downloaded a confidential drawing of its unreleased product and handed it to the Apple executive turned OpenAI hardware chief. OpenAI has disputed those claims as well.

Apple never mentions iyO in its own complaint. But the two cases now describe the same small hardware team, built out of the same circle of Apple alumni, accused twice in four months of building on work that was not its own.

OpenAI’s Legal Calendar Keeps Filling Up

Apple’s complaint arrives two months after OpenAI beat back a different threat. CNBC reported that a federal jury sided with OpenAI in its fight with Elon Musk, ruling he waited too long to sue over claims that Altman, co-founder Greg Brockman and the company had abandoned its original nonprofit mission. Musk said he would appeal.

OpenAI is also still defending a 2023 copyright suit brought by The New York Times and Microsoft over how its models were trained. Apple’s case adds a trade secret fight to that docket just as OpenAI prepares for a stock market debut that bankers expect to rank among the largest in tech history.

A few numbers from the filing show how far the talent flow has gone.

• 400+ former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, according to the complaint.
• 41 pages make up Apple’s complaint against OpenAI, Tan, Liu and io Products.
• 10 engineers joined OpenAI directly from Apple in a recent stretch counted by CNN through LinkedIn profiles.
• Apple wrote to OpenAI in February 2026 raising its suspicions and says it got no reply.

OpenAI is not alone in racing to build its own silicon and devices. Meta is pouring money into the same bet, with its custom Iris chip entering production this September as part of a $145 billion buildout. Apple’s lawsuit argues OpenAI tried to skip years of that same work by hiring the people who had already done it once.

What Happens to OpenAI’s Hardware Launch Now?

Apple wants a court order barring OpenAI from using any disputed material before its device reaches shelves. That single request could freeze supplier contracts and design work tied to the project Ive has led since last year, even before a judge rules on the underlying theft claims.

Apple said it plans to move “promptly” for a preliminary injunction. Its complaint asks the court to go beyond simply blocking use of the material.

• Bar OpenAI, io Products, Tan and Liu from using or disclosing any Apple trade secret
• Force the return of confidential Apple material still in OpenAI’s possession
• Preserve evidence tied to the alleged theft ahead of formal discovery
• Award damages in an amount to be determined at trial

OpenAI has said little about what its device actually is. The Information has reported on a HomePod-style speaker, and the Wall Street Journal has described a device aware of its surroundings.

Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote in April that OpenAI could be building a smartphone as soon as 2028. Altman said in November that the team had finished its first prototypes.

OpenAI’s chief financial officer told the Associated Press this spring that the device remains a priority even after the company trimmed other projects.

None of that changes quickly. Discovery alone could take months. Tom’s Guide, which reviewed the complaint, said the case will likely take years to reach trial.

Apple’s revamped Siri is still set to arrive this fall running on Gemini, not ChatGPT. Fortune reported that Tim Cook is due to hand the chief executive role to Apple’s John Ternus in September. The device Apple is trying to stop in court still has no announced release date.