Apple Lawsuit Exposes High-Stakes AI Hardware Talent War

Apple has sued OpenAI and two of its employees, alleging that they stole trade secrets from Apple to support OpenAI’s development of devices.

The OpenAI employees named in the lawsuit, Chief Hardware Officer Tang Tan and technical staff member Chang Liu, are former Apple employees, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday (July 10).

The suit alleges that Tan emailed himself information about Apple’s suppliers and asked Apple employees to bring parts to OpenAI during job interviews, and that Liu downloaded confidential files from Apple’s network and coached an Apple employee on how to copy confidential files, according to the report.

Apple said in the suit that it doesn’t know what OpenAI did with the information but alleged that “at every level, from members of its Technical Staff to its Chief Hardware Officer, and in coordination with business partners, OpenAI has been stealing Apple’s trade secrets and confidential information,” per the report.

Neither Apple nor OpenAI immediately replied to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

In a statement provided to CNBC, an Apple representative said: “Recently, significant evidence has emerged suggesting individuals employed by OpenAI wrongfully took Apple’s secret and confidential information regarding our unreleased technologies, processes and products.”

Reuters reported Friday that OpenAI currently employs more than 400 former Apple employees. The report also said that Apple said in its complaint that it wrote to OpenAI in February asking to discuss concerns about confidential information and received no reply.

Bloomberg reported Friday that with its lawsuit, Apple is demanding that OpenAI stop the practices alleged in the suit, destroy any proprietary materials and redesign its upcoming products so that they don’t use any Apple technology.

PYMNTS reported in June 2024 that Apple and OpenAI partnered to incorporate OpenAI’s ChatGPT language model into Apple’s iOS, iPadOS and macOS platforms.

In May 2025, OpenAI announced it was acquiring io, an AI device startup whose co-founders include Tan.

In December, it was reported that dozens of employees had left Apple for OpenAI and Meta at a time when competitors are working to challenge the market share held by the iPhone and other parts of Apple’s ecosystem, Apple is adjusting to the AI era, and new devices are being developed to make the most of that technology.