Apple just raised the stakes in its trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI. Newly filed evidence shows former Apple engineer Chang Liu downloaded a confidential circuit schematic two months after quitting, then actively used the file at OpenAI to train an AI model on chip simulations.
Apple filed the lawsuit in July against Liu and fellow former employee Tang Tan, accusing them of using multiple methods to extract proprietary data before and after their departures.
When Liu left Apple for OpenAI, he kept an Apple-issued MacBook. Apple recovered the laptop after the lawsuit was filed, and forensic analysis of the device has now produced what Apple calls “shocking evidence” that its trade secrets are actively being used and that steps were taken to cover the trail.
What the Laptop Revealed
According to the new filing, Liu downloaded the circuit schematic from Apple in March and used it to run a power conversion simulation through the electrical engineering tool LTspice.
In messages referenced in the lawsuit, Liu described training an AI agent to automate those simulations. “In the past hour,” he wrote, his AI “agent learned how to run LTspice, look at result, tune compensation parameter.”
He added that a task which previously took him a full day now took two hours, including the time it took the agent to learn the tool from scratch. “Oh man! Why do they even need you then?” came the reply from the person he was messaging.
Apple’s filing also alleges that Liu, upon learning he was being investigated internally, sent instructions for destroying evidence to an OpenAI colleague, who confirmed she would comply.
The company further claims Liu used a tool at OpenAI that shares its name with an internal Apple engineering application, and that Liu and others at OpenAI were fully aware he still had access to Apple’s third-party cloud storage after his departure.
The schematic was accessed on a Mac mini that later synced with the MacBook Liu took from Apple, which is how the activity came to light. Apple now wants court authorization to examine the Mac mini and any other devices still in Liu’s possession.
Apple Pushes for Expedited Discovery
Apple is using the new evidence to press for expedited discovery, arguing that the ongoing use of its trade secrets and the apparent destruction of evidence make a standard timeline untenable.
The company had already sought a preliminary injunction earlier this month to bar OpenAI and the two former employees from accessing or using its proprietary information.
OpenAI has pushed back hard. The company asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit entirely, calling the accusations “meritless.”
In a public statement, OpenAI described the suit as “careless, aggressive and oddly personal” and said it does not “have, nor want, any of their trade secrets” because it is “much more interested in building innovative products and technologies that push the frontier.”
Judge Edward J. Davila is scheduled to hear arguments in the case on October 1.
