By Lisa Eadicicco, Hadas Gold, NCS
(NCS) — Apple sued OpenAI on Friday, alleging the AI firm has stolen the iPhone maker’s trade secrets to develop its personal yet-to-be-unveiled AI gadgets.
In the go well with, filed in the District Court of Northern California, Apple accuses OpenAI of trade secret misappropriation and breach of contract.
OpenAI last year announced it has been working with Apple’s former design chief on a hush-hush venture to construct gadgets meant to deliver smartphone customers into the age of AI.
The gadget is anticipated to be unveiled later this yr – however the lawsuit may throw a wrench into these plans. The go well with may additionally complicate OpenAI’s plans to go public quickly in an enormous, hotly anticipated IPO.
“We have no interest in other companies’ trade secrets,” mentioned Drew Pusateri, a spokesperson for OpenAI. “We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.”
The go well with names OpenAI; OpenAI’s Chang Liu, a former Apple engineer, and OpenAI {hardware} chief Tang Tan, who beforehand led iPhone and Apple Watch product design. The lawsuit additionally named io Products, the corporate based by Jony Ive, Apple’s design chief till 2019 who helped usher the iPhone into existence. The go well with doesn’t identify Ive as a defendant, nor does it accuse him of wrongdoing. OpenAI purchased io final yr.
Confidential Apple particulars allegedly stolen
Liu and Tan performed a essential function in the theft, Apple alleges. Liu left Apple to be part of OpenAI in January 2026 and didn’t reply to Apple’s makes an attempt to make sure that he signed the corporate’s confidentiality reminder, schedule an exit interview and ensure that he returned his firm gadgets, Apple claimed in the go well with. The lawsuit says he failed to return a work-issued laptop computer and likewise gained entry to a former colleague’s work pc after leaving the corporate.
Liu accessed and downloaded “dozens of Apple’s confidential hardware-related files, including voluminous, detailed information about unreleased products, engineering presentations, technical specifications, and proprietary project data,” the lawsuit says.
Apple alleges that Tan used confidential firm data when recruiting candidates, together with instructing them to deliver Apple elements through the interview course of. It additionally alleges Tan and OpenAI coached Apple workers on how to depart the corporate.
Tan additionally instructed OpenAI about key conferences with Apple suppliers and emailed himself details about these suppliers earlier than leaving his function, Apple alleges.
The firm additionally says it discovered proof that different former Apple workers had taken confidential data with them upon leaving to work for OpenAI.
“At Apple, our teams are constantly developing breakthrough technologies to create the best products and services in the world, and protecting their work and intellectual property is something we take very seriously,” Apple mentioned in an announcement.
In the lawsuit, Apple mentioned it contacted OpenAI to elevate its issues when the investigation was in its early levels however that it by no means obtained a response.
Race for the longer term of computing
The lawsuit additionally represents a breakdown in the connection between the 2 firms, which in 2024 introduced a partnership to begin integrating ChatGPT into Apple merchandise. But in May, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI was contemplating authorized motion towards Apple, doubtlessly alleging breach of contract over claims that Apple had not sufficiently built-in and promoted OpenAI’s merchandise throughout its gadgets.
OpenAI has aggressively poached prime present and former Apple management and engineering expertise, primarily to construct a devoted {hardware} division.
According to a NCS rely of LinkedIn profiles, OpenAI has lately employed not less than ten engineers who joined the AI firm immediately from Apple.
The lawsuit highlights the high-stakes rivalry amongst tech giants to dominate the AI period. OpenAI has made sweeping modifications to its product technique, aiming to put ChatGPT on the middle of customers’ digital lives. And Apple is ready to launch its long-awaited revamped model of Siri later this yr, which can be ready to work throughout apps and personalize solutions by referencing a person’s iPhone knowledge.
OpenAI hasn’t mentioned a lot publicly about its secretive {hardware} venture. The Information has reported that OpenAI is engaged on a wise speaker, whereas The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI’s gadget can be conscious of a person’s environment.
AI is reshaping how individuals work together with expertise, and these sorts of {hardware} efforts are half of a push by tech firms to maintain themselves on the forefront of these modifications. Tech giants largely consider that as AI brokers develop extra succesful of dealing with on a regular basis duties, customers might not want to use apps or work together with screens as usually.
This story has been up to date with extra data.
The-NCS-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.