The 6 wildest claims in Apple’s lawsuit against OpenAI
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- Apple filed a 41-page lawsuit accusing OpenAI of orchestrating a scheme to steal trade secrets, including confidential documents, hardware prototypes, and a proprietary metal-finishing technique used by one of its trusted manufacturing partners.
- Tang Tan, a 24-year Apple veteran and former VP of the Apple Watch, is accused of soliciting Apple trade secrets during job interviews — asking candidates to bring hardware components like batteries and logic boards for "show and tell sessions" and prepare "Technical Deep Dive" presentations.
- Chang Liu, a former iPhone systems electrical engineer with 8+ years at Apple, allegedly retained an Apple-owned computer after announcing his departure and exploited an authentication vulnerability to download dozens of confidential files from Apple's cloud storage weeks after leaving — messaging "LOL, I found out I can access the [network storage], so funny."
- Yu-Ting "Alyssa" Peng allegedly kept Liu informed about Apple's projects, engineering details, and vendor relationships after Liu departed, with Apple claiming Liu coached her on how to copy files and avoid Apple's security team during her own transition to OpenAI in April 2026.
- OpenAI allegedly used an internal Apple offboarding document obtained by Tan to "coach" departing Apple employees on bypassing security checks, advising them not to sign exit interview documents and not to disclose their new employer — a pattern Apple says has recently accelerated.
- Apple accuses OpenAI of approaching at least two of its suppliers using confidential information and internal codenames, including misleading one partner into believing OpenAI had permission to use Apple's proprietary multi-step metal-finishing technique.
- OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri denied the allegations, stating: "We have no interest in other companies' trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere."
Why it matters: The lawsuit targets OpenAI's push into consumer hardware ahead of the AI company's planned first device launch next year, with Apple alleging a systemic — not incidental — operation involving three named individuals and coaching of multiple employees. Apple claims it has observed an accelerating trend of workers leaving for OpenAI while evading security, potentially disrupting the talent pipeline and supply chain relationships OpenAI needs to compete in devices.
