Apple Sues OpenAI for Stealing Trade Secrets to Build AI Hardware Friday July 10, 2026 1:30 pm PDT by Juli Clover Apple today accused OpenAI of stealing Apple trade secrets and intellectual property in its effort to develop an AI hardware device . …
… Tan is OpenAI's Chief Hardware Officer and a 24-year Apple veteran who led product design, while Liu is on the hardware team at OpenAI after working as a senior system electrical engineer at Apple. …
… OpenAI has declined to discuss its hardware roadmap directly, though in response to the suit the company said it has "no interest in other companies' trade secrets" and remains focused on its own technology. …
… Apple has asked the court for an injunction, and if granted, OpenAI could be prohibited from releasing hardware. …
… Apple claims Liu accessed confidential hardware files over several weeks after finding an authentication bug. …
… Tan is OpenAI's Chief Hardware Officer and a 24-year Apple veteran who led product design, while Liu is on the hardware team at OpenAI after working as a senior system electrical engineer at Apple. …
… Apple said OpenAI has created a culture of hardware theft, and that its hardware business is "rotten to the core" because the hardware it's building relies on info stolen from Apple. …
… The allegations instead center on former iPhone executive Tang Tan, now OpenAI's chief hardware officer, whom Apple accuses of coaching recruits to bypass security measures and bring Apple hardware into interviews for "show-and-tell" sessions. …
… Apple accused OpenAI leadership of creating a culture of hardware theft, and said OpenAI's hardware business is "rotten to its core" because of its reliance on information stolen from Apple. …