Apple Sues OpenAI for Stealing Hardware Secrets via Poached Designers
Partnership of the century? More like corporate espionage of the decade. The iPhone maker is dragging the AI darling to court, claiming they poached staff to clone secrets. This is going to get messy.
The federal lawsuit filed in Northern California claims OpenAI systematically looted Apple's trade secrets to fast-track its own entry into consumer electronics.
The romance between the two tech giants started cooling down rapidly after OpenAI splurged $6.4 billion on IO Products, a hardware startup co-founded by Apple's former legendary design guru Jony Ive. It turns out that while Sam Altman's crew was busy praising Apple in public, they were allegedly busy vacuuming up Cupertino's top talent behind the scenes.
At the center of the storm is Tang Tan, former Vice President of iPhone and Apple Watch design, who now leads OpenAI's hardware division. Apple alleges that Tan did not just leave; he actively coached current employees to bring physical iPhone parts to their job interviews at OpenAI as "show and tell" props, which is certainly one way to ace an interview.
Another key player in this corporate thriller is Chang Liu, a senior electrical engineer who left Apple in early 2026. According to the lawsuit, Liu kept his company laptop and downloaded dozens of highly confidential files containing schematics, unannounced product specs, and proprietary hardware designs. He even managed to log into a former colleague's workstation after he was already off the payroll, proving that basic IT security is sometimes just a suggestion even at the world's most valuable company.
The legal complaint pulls no punches, describing OpenAI's hardware ambitions as "rotten to the core" and built on a foundation of stolen property. OpenAI has responded through spokesperson Drew Pusateri, stating they have zero interest in other companies' trade secrets and are purely focused on innovation. Meanwhile, Apple's latest Siri update is running on Google Gemini instead of ChatGPT, showing just how dead this partnership really is.
Silicon Valley's favorite non-profit-turned-capitalist-machine is learning that poaching engineers is fine, but stealing blueprint homework is a great way to get sued before an IPO. It remains to be seen whether the upcoming AI keyboard will ever see the light of day, or if the courts will put OpenAI's physical dreams in permanent sleep mode.
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