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The complaint alleges a concerted effort by two former Apple employees and OpenAI to steal privacy.
Published on 10 Jul 2026
Apple has criticized OpenAI and two former employees, saying that they do not use its trade secrets as the artificial intelligence company wants to develop its ChatGPT hardware, a major break in the partnership between the iPhone maker and the AI giant.
The complaint, which was filed in federal court in California on Friday, alleges that they sought to steal Apple’s secrets, including product designs, manufacturing processes and sales methods.
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OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit names Chang Liu, a former senior electronics engineer, and Tang Yew Tan, former vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch, as defendants, along with the OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC and io Products. Neither defendant immediately responded to a request for comment.
Apple said Liu failed to return a company-made laptop and later used a bug to break into Apple’s internal network, downloading “many confidential Apple files”.
The iPhone maker also said that OpenAI’s head of hardware Tan “used Apple’s confidential information to benefit OpenAI” by emailing himself Apple salespeople and internal company briefings before his departure.
Apple also said that Tan encouraged Apple employees to bring parts from Apple to OpenAI job interviews to participate in a “show and tell” session, citing an incident in its files where an OpenAI candidate said he “didn’t even know we could hire them in the office”.
More than 400 former Apple employees are now working on OpenAI, Apple said in a statement, adding that it was “not surprising” that some of them knew about its secrets.
“The fact that OpenAI now uses people who have been given Apple’s trade secrets does not give OpenAI the right to use this information to advance its hardware efforts,” the iPhone maker wrote in its complaint.
OpenAI has not said exactly what kind of device it is building, but has described it as an attempt to find a new way to communicate with AI that goes beyond “traditional things and interfaces”. It’s part of a larger push to showcase AI advances, a decade after Amazon and Google launched screen-free speakers in the home.
The lawsuit alleges that the effort was made in part for content stolen from Apple.
Apple also said that OpenAI employees seek privacy from the company’s suppliers.
At one point, Apple said, one of its vendors used OpenAI’s bare-bones method, believing the AI company had Apple’s license to use the method.
OpenAI bought hardware startup io Products, founded by former Apple developer Jony Ive, last year in a $6.5bn deal, pushing beyond software into consumer devices. Ive was not named in the lawsuit.
A difficult relationship
Tensions between the two tech companies have strained their relationship, as competition to develop AI products has intensified competition for talent and proprietary technology.
In its complaint, Apple said it wrote to OpenAI in February with concerns that its privacy was going to OpenAI, asking to discuss the matter, but it did not respond.
A person familiar with the matter told the Reuters news agency in May that OpenAI was exploring legal options against Apple, including notifying the developer of the breach of contract but not filing a full lawsuit.
In 2024, Apple announced the integration of its Apple Intelligence technology into its apps, including Siri, and brought OpenAI’s ChatGPT to its devices.
Their partnership allows users to access ChatGPT results through Siri, while iPhone users can also sign up for ChatGPT membership directly from the iOS menu.
Apple released an update to the Siri remote last month. The update comes two years after Apple first promised a major upgrade.
