{"id":521755,"date":"2026-07-12T02:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T02:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/521755\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T02:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T02:46:10","slug":"apple-files-lawsuit-accusing-openai-of-stealing-trade-secrets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/521755\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple files lawsuit accusing OpenAI of stealing trade secrets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple on Friday (local time) accused OpenAI of stealing trade secrets as it seeks to build its own hardware for ChatGPT<\/a>, a major rupture in a partnership between the iPhone maker and the artificial intelligence company.<\/p>\n

Apple said in the lawsuit filed in a California federal court that the theft of its trade secrets was part of a \u201ccoordinated pattern of misconduct at an institutional level\u201d by OpenAI.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case is about Apple\u2019s former employees stealing Apple\u2019s trade secrets for the benefit of OpenAI,\u201d the filing says. \u201cApple brings this suit to put a stop to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two former Apple employees who now work for OpenAI are also named as defendants. One is Tang Tan, who helped design the iPhone, Apple Watch and iPod and is now OpenAI\u2019s chief hardware officer. <\/p>\n

The other is Chang Liu, a former electrical engineer Apple says it entrusted with some of its most sensitive product development efforts before Liu left Apple to join OpenAI earlier this year.<\/p>\n

OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

The suit accuses OpenAI of seeking shortcuts on hardware<\/p>\n

OpenAI has never said exactly what type of device it is building, but has described it as an effort to find a new way to interact with AI that goes beyond \u201ctraditional products and interfaces.\u201d It\u2019s part of a broader push to create a physical embodiment of the latest AI advances, <\/a>a decade after Amazon and Google introduced screen-free talking speakers into homes.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit claims the effort was built partly on knowledge stolen from Apple.<\/p>\n

\u201cOpenAI\u2019s nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets,\u201d the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n

Apple said it began investigating whether some of its confidential information was compromised and \u201cuncovered a pattern of theft\u201d of Apple\u2019s trade secrets by former employees who moved on to positions at OpenAI.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit alleges both Liu and Tan accessed Apple\u2019s confidential company information and files while working at OpenAI. Among the allegations, Apple claims Liu accessed and downloaded several confidential hardware-related files on an Apple-issued device he kept after departing. <\/p>\n

It also alleges Tan directed job candidates who were still working for Apple to bring \u201cActual parts\u201d from Apple to their interviews at OpenAI.<\/p>\n

Apple said in the lawsuit that it reached out to OpenAI in February to raise its concerns early in its investigation, but said that OpenAI did not respond.<\/p>\n

An Apple spokesperson said in a statement Friday that the company will \u201calways defend our teams\u2019 hard work and innovations, and we are taking all appropriate steps to do so”. <\/p>\n

A partnership with Apple has edged toward rivalry<\/p>\n

Apple sought help from OpenAI several years ago as it was behind in the AI race<\/a> sparked by ChatGPT\u2019s arrival. The two companies partnered in 2024 to use ChatGPT as an AI-powered \u201canswer engine\u201d on the iPhone when the built-in Siri technology couldn\u2019t satisfy user needs. More recently, the partnership has veered toward rivalry.<\/p>\n

As part of its expansion efforts, OpenAI recruited former Apple designer Jony Ive to oversee a project to build an AI-powered device that many analysts believe could eventually challenge Apple\u2019s products.<\/p>\n

Last year, OpenAI announced it was working on a secret hardware collaboration with Ive to pioneer a new way of communicating with artificial intelligence. As part of the collaboration, OpenAI acquired io Products, a product and engineering company co-founded by Ive, Tan and two others, in a deal valued at nearly US$6.5 billion (NZ$11.2 billion) <\/p>\n

That led a little-known tech startup iyO Inc. to sue Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman for trademark infringement due to the similar-sounding name and the firms\u2019 past interactions. The startup also sued one of its own former employees for allegedly leaking a confidential drawing of iyO\u2019s unreleased product, and it later added trade secret theft claims against Tan to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s lawsuit also names io Products as a defendant. Lawyers who previously represented the firm and Tan didn\u2019t immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s lawsuit comes as OpenAI has been exploring whether to go public on Wall Street and faces heightened competition from rivals including Anthropic and Google.<\/p>\n

OpenAI winnowed down some of its business ventures earlier this year to focus on its core product, ChatGPT, but has continued to pursue a device, the company\u2019s chief financial officer told The Associated Press this spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have consumer hardware that will come towards the end of this year,\u201d CFO Sarah Friar told the AP in April.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple on Friday (local time) accused OpenAI of stealing trade secrets as it seeks to build its own…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,111,139,64,69,145],"class_list":["post-521755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-north-america","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}