Apple sues OpenAI trade secret theft Tang Tan Chang Liu hardware lawsuit
Apple $AAPL sued OpenAI, alleging it encouraged ex-Apple staff and recruits to bring over unreleased product info. The suit names ex-Apple design VP Tang Tan and engineer Chang Liu, accused of accessing Apple's cloud storage via a retained laptop after joining OpenAI. OpenAI disp
Apple $AAPL has sued OpenAI in federal court in Northern California, alleging trade secret theft connected to OpenAI's efforts to build its own consumer hardware. According to the complaint, Apple alleges OpenAI asked former Apple employees, and even people it was recruiting away from Apple, to bring information about unreleased Apple products with them. The lawsuit names Tang Tan, a former Apple vice president of product design who led iPhone and Apple Watch design, and Chang Liu, who spent eight years at Apple as a senior systems electrical engineer before joining OpenAI in January 2026, as defendants. Apple's filing alleges that Liu retained a work-issued Apple laptop after leaving the company, discovered a bug that let him access Apple's cloud file storage, and downloaded confidential files while working on hardware for OpenAI. OpenAI has pushed back publicly, stating it takes the allegations seriously but is not aware of evidence that the complaint has merit. The case arrives as OpenAI is trying to establish its own line of consumer devices, positioning it in the same hardware market Apple has spent two decades building and defending, which raises the stakes of the dispute well beyond a typical employee poaching case.