Apple accuses OpenAI of using stolen hardware secrets
Apple’s lawsuit says former employees improperly carried confidential device information into OpenAI’s growing hardware group.
By Hana Yoshida · Markets Reporter
3 min read
Apple has sued OpenAI, accusing the AI company of building its hardware ambitions with confidential information taken from the iPhone maker. The case matters because it puts two major tech partners into a direct legal fight over the next wave of AI devices.
In a lawsuit filed Friday, Apple alleged that former iPhone engineer Chang Liu kept access to internal Apple systems after leaving for OpenAI’s early-stage hardware division. Apple said Liu did not return a company MacBook, maintained contact with an Apple employee and discovered a software flaw that let him reach internal file servers.
Apple cited a message it says Liu sent to former colleague Alyssa Peng after discovering the access: “LOL, I found out I can access the [network storage], so funny.” The company alleged that Liu later downloaded presentations, hardware designs, manufacturing information and testing procedures while already employed by OpenAI.
According to Apple’s complaint, Peng helped Liu obtain more information through her own laptop and later joined OpenAI’s hardware group in April. Apple said Peng was part of a wider hiring push that brought more than 400 former Apple employees into OpenAI.
Apple says recruiting became an information pipeline
Apple alleged in the 40-page complaint that OpenAI made a “systematic effort to acquire, retain and use” Apple’s confidential material. The company said OpenAI encouraged Apple employees who were interviewing for jobs to review confidential materials beforehand and bring components or prototypes to interview sessions.
The lawsuit centers in part on Tang Tan, a former senior Apple hardware executive who later became OpenAI’s chief hardware officer, according to Bloomberg. Apple alleged that Tan used interviews to seek information about unreleased Apple products.
In one example described by Apple, an employee allegedly obtained information about an Apple project shortly before interviewing with Tan. Apple said Tan then asked for more information about that project during the interview, calling the episode part of a repeated pattern.
Apple also alleged that new OpenAI hires were told to move information from Apple devices to personal email accounts before resigning. The complaint says OpenAI circulated a checklist prepared by Tan that Apple claims was meant to help employees avoid detection by Apple security teams.
OpenAI denies interest in trade secrets
OpenAI rejected Apple’s allegations in a statement, saying it has “no interest in other companies’ trade secrets.” A spokesperson for the San Francisco company said OpenAI remains focused on building technology for users.
The OpenAI employees named in Apple’s lawsuit, including Tan, did not respond to requests for comment, according to Bloomberg. Apple said it contacted OpenAI in February to raise concerns that confidential Apple information had reached the company and asked OpenAI to investigate and stop any improper conduct. Apple alleged OpenAI did not respond.
Bloomberg reported that tensions had been building for months between Apple and OpenAI, which have also worked together. Both companies are pursuing AI hardware that could change how consumers use technology.
Tan had spent 25 years at Apple and worked on products including Mac laptops, iPods, the original iPhone and Apple Watch, according to Bloomberg. He later joined forces with former Apple design chief Jony Ive and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on a hardware venture aimed at creating AI devices.
Tan and Ive helped found io Products, which OpenAI acquired last year for $6.5 billion, Bloomberg reported. Apple’s lawsuit casts OpenAI’s hardware business as built on allegedly misappropriated information, while OpenAI says it is not seeking competitors’ secrets.
This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.