MUMBAI: The gloves are off, and the silicon is under scrutiny. What began as an AI partnership has spilled into the courtroom, with Apple accusing OpenAI of orchestrating a campaign to obtain confidential information about unreleased products through former employees, a claim the AI company has firmly denied.
According to a Bloomberg report, Apple has filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, naming OpenAI and its chief hardware officer Tang Tan, a former Apple executive who previously led product design for the iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods and other hardware programmes.
In its complaint, Apple alleges that OpenAI encouraged current and former Apple employees to disclose confidential product information, engineering drawings, hardware components and technical documents as it accelerated the development of its own AI-powered hardware portfolio.
OpenAI rejected the allegations, stating that it has “no interest in other companies’ trade secrets” and remains focused on building technology that benefits users.
Apple claims that more than 400 of its former employees have joined OpenAI. It alleges that Tang Tan encouraged Apple employees to discuss confidential projects during recruitment interviews and names former Apple hardware engineer Chang Liu as another defendant.
According to the lawsuit, Liu accessed and downloaded confidential hardware-related files including information on unreleased products, engineering presentations, technical specifications and proprietary project data while preparing to leave Apple for OpenAI in January.
Apple further alleges that departing employees were coached on how to resign without immediately losing access to the company’s internal systems. The complaint claims OpenAI advised employees not to disclose their next employer and suggested ways to retain access to Apple’s systems during their notice period.
The iPhone maker is seeking a jury trial and has asked the court to order OpenAI to cease the alleged practices, destroy any confidential Apple material in its possession and ensure future hardware products do not incorporate Apple’s proprietary technology.
The lawsuit marks a dramatic deterioration in relations between the two companies, which had previously collaborated on integrating ChatGPT into Apple Intelligence and Siri. According to Apple, tensions escalated as OpenAI expanded its hardware ambitions, including its acquisition of io Products, the AI devices startup co-founded by Tang Tan, former Apple design chief Jony Ive and Apple veteran Evans Hankey. Neither Ive nor Hankey has been named in the lawsuit.
Apple also claims it attempted to resolve the matter privately by asking OpenAI to halt the alleged conduct and remove any proprietary materials from its possession, but says it received no response before deciding to pursue legal action.
If the allegations are tested in court, the case could become one of the most closely watched legal battles in the AI industry, raising fresh questions about talent mobility, trade secrets and the increasingly fierce race to dominate the next generation of AI-powered devices.