Apple filed a federal lawsuit Friday against OpenAI, accusing the company of running a coordinated campaign to extract confidential hardware secrets from Apple employees before and after they left the company.
The complaint, filed in the Northern District of California, names Tang Tan, OpenAI’s hardware lead and a former Apple designer, along with former Apple electrical engineer Chang Liu as primary defendants.
Apple alleges the two men directed job candidates interviewing at OpenAI to hand over details about unreleased Apple products, manufacturing processes, component specifications, and supplier relationships before those candidates had even resigned from Apple.
Coaching Employees to Stay Silent
According to the lawsuit, Tan told prospective OpenAI hires to conceal their job offers so they could remain employed at Apple as long as possible and continue gathering information.
After leaving Apple himself, Tan allegedly obtained an internal document marked “Need to Know” outlining Apple’s security procedures for employee departures and shared it with incoming OpenAI recruits to help them anticipate and sidestep Apple’s exit protocols.
Apple says its investigation found a consistent pattern among employees who left for OpenAI: emailing themselves confidential files before giving notice.
One employee was allegedly instructed by Tan to bring physical hardware components to her OpenAI interview, including batteries, logic boards, and system-in-package modules she had worked on at Apple.
A Laptop Left Behind, and Access That Was Never Revoked
Liu’s conduct, as described in the complaint, went further. Apple says he kept an Apple-issued laptop after departing the company, then discovered the device still had access to Apple’s internal network storage.
Court filings include a text message Liu reportedly sent to Yu-Ting “Alyssa” Peng, an Apple employee who allegedly continued feeding him updates on Apple projects and vendor decisions while he worked at OpenAI.
“LOL, I found out I can access the [network storage], so funny,” Liu wrote, according to Apple’s filing. He then used that access to download dozens of confidential Apple documents.
Apple also claims OpenAI used stolen supplier information to approach Apple’s own manufacturing partners.
In one case, Apple alleges OpenAI told a vendor it had Apple’s permission to use a proprietary metal-finishing technique for an OpenAI hardware device. Apple says it did not authorize that use.
What Apple Is Asking the Court to Do
Apple first reached out to OpenAI in February after discovering evidence of potential theft. OpenAI did not respond, according to the lawsuit, which led Apple to continue its internal investigation before filing suit.
The complaint describes the known incidents as “the tip of the iceberg” and states that misconduct at OpenAI is “normalized and exemplified by leadership.”
Apple is seeking a court injunction that would bar OpenAI from using or disclosing any of its proprietary information. It is also pursuing financial damages and has accused both Tan and Liu of breaching their employment contracts with Apple.
More than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, though the lawsuit does not challenge that hiring broadly.
Jony Ive, the former Apple design chief who joined OpenAI, is not named as a defendant, nor is CEO Sam Altman. OpenAI’s io Products subsidiary, which Ive leads, is named in the suit.
Apple explicitly states in the filing that its existing partnership with OpenAI for the Siri and ChatGPT integration is separate from this case and not at issue in the litigation.
