Summary
- Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and two ex-employees, alleging the misappropriation of hardware trade secrets.
- The lawsuit claims that former Apple workers accessed confidential documents, disseminated supplier details, and utilized internal information while at OpenAI.
- This legal action follows OpenAI’s $6.5 billion purchase of Jony Ive’s hardware company, io Products.
Apple has taken legal action against OpenAI and two of its former employees, claiming that the company utilized stolen trade secrets in its hardware development.
The lawsuit, filed on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, names Chang Liu, a former senior system electrical engineer at Apple, and Tang Yew Tan, a former design executive for iPhone and Apple Watch, as well as OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC, and io Products.
According to Apple, Liu, who departed the company in January after eight years, did not return a company-issued laptop and later gained access to Apple’s internal systems via an authentication flaw.
In the complaint, Apple’s legal representatives stated, “While employed by OpenAI, Mr. Liu also exploited a rare, previously unknown authentication bug to access Apple’s shared network folders. Upon discovering this unauthorized access, Mr. Liu failed to report it, return his stolen Apple-issued work laptop, or remove the program that enabled the access.”
Apple asserts that Liu downloaded numerous confidential hardware documents, including details about unreleased products, engineering presentations, technical specifications, and proprietary project information.
Furthermore, the company claims that Tan, who worked at Apple for 24 years before becoming OpenAI’s chief hardware officer, leveraged confidential information from his tenure at Apple to benefit OpenAI.
The lawsuit alleges that Tan referenced Apple’s internal project names during interviews at OpenAI and inquired about unreleased products. Apple also claims that candidates were instructed to bring “actual parts” for “show and tell.”
Apple further alleges that OpenAI’s hiring practices solicited “CAD/design artifacts,” prototypes, supplier information, and insights into employees’ contributions to Apple hardware.
Neither Apple nor OpenAI responded immediately to a request for comments from Decrypt.
This lawsuit comes on the heels of OpenAI’s $6.4 billion acquisition of io Products, a hardware startup founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive, who is not mentioned in the lawsuit.
According to the filing, OpenAI’s hardware division has recruited over 400 former Apple employees. Apple claims it reached out to OpenAI in February regarding concerns about potential leaks of confidential information, but did not receive a response.
This development follows a previous legal dispute between OpenAI and Elon Musk's xAI, where xAI sued OpenAI, accusing the company of recruiting former employees to acquire confidential source code, training methodologies, and data center strategies.
OpenAI has denied these allegations, and a federal judge dismissed the case in June, stating that xAI did not demonstrate that OpenAI encouraged a former employee to reveal confidential information.
This lawsuit marks a significant shift from the previously collaborative relationship between Apple and OpenAI.
In 2024, Apple had engaged OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Siri as part of its Apple Intelligence initiative. However, earlier this year, Apple opted for Google’s Gemini to enhance its upcoming AI models after delays hindered the rollout.