The Apple trade secrets lawsuit filed against OpenAI last Friday is many things at once: a 41-page catalogue of alleged corporate espionage, a legal salvo aimed at a company building the iPhone’s most credible rival, and, in places, an almost comic record of how carelessly some of the alleged misconduct was conducted.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, names OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC, and io Products as corporate defendants, alongside two individual former Apple employees. Its scope stretches from a text message that reads ‘LOL, I found out I can access the [network storage], so funny’ all the way to allegations that OpenAI’s hardware ambitions rest on a foundation of misappropriated design knowledge.
What the Apple Trade Secrets Lawsuit Actually Alleges
The central figure in the most colourful allegations is Chang Liu, who spent eight years at Apple before departing for OpenAI in January 2026, according to 9to5Mac. Apple claims Liu exploited an authentication bug to access Apple’s systems from a former colleague’s Apple-issued work computer after he had already left the company. Within hours of his departure, he allegedly texted ‘I still have another computer,’ a reference, Apple says, to a second Apple machine he planned to use to extract confidential information.
His alleged contact at Apple, Yu-Ting ‘Alyssa’ Peng, is described in the complaint as a conduit between the two companies. When Liu sent his message about accessing the network storage, Peng allegedly replied: ‘I’m ready.’ Peng later joined OpenAI herself but is not named as a defendant.
The complaint’s most arresting allegation involves Tang Yew Tan, OpenAI’s Chief Hardware Officer, who spent 24 years at Apple, most recently as VP of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch, before departing in February 2024 to work with designer Jony Ive. Apple alleges that Tan directed job candidates still employed at Apple to bring ‘actual parts’ to their OpenAI interviews for ‘show and tell sessions,’ along with ‘CAD/design artifacts’ and ‘prototypes.’ One candidate was apparently surprised by the request, saying he had not realised Apple parts could be taken from the office.
Apple also alleges that OpenAI circulated an internal Apple document, marked ‘Need to know,’ advising incoming hires on how to avoid being walked out immediately upon resignation, which would have denied them continued access to Apple’s systems during a standard two-week notice period. Departing employees were also allegedly advised to alert OpenAI immediately if asked to sign anything at an exit interview, and to decline.
io Products and the Jony Ive Connection
The lawsuit draws io Products, formerly the startup co-founded by Ive along with Apple alumni Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey, and Tang Tan, directly into the frame. CNBC reports the deal value at approximately $6.4 billion in an all-equity transaction, making it by far OpenAI’s largest acquisition to date; some outlets have cited a figure of $6.5 billion. The merger was announced on 21 May 2025 and completed on 9 July 2025, according to KRON4. The purchase came just weeks after OpenAI agreed to acquire AI-assisted coding tool Windsurf for $3 billion.
Apple alleges that io accessed a confidential metal-finishing technique by misleading Apple’s manufacturing partner into believing it had Apple’s permission to use it. The complaint also alleges that OpenAI approached a supplier using Apple’s internal terminology, asking questions ‘only Apple-insiders would know to ask,’ in relation to power and battery components. Apple’s phrase for the alleged result: io’s hardware business is ‘rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets.’
The complaint explicitly warns that what has been documented so far is only the beginning. ‘Discovery will expose that the misappropriation has been occurring on a scale many times greater than the several instances described below,’ it states. Apple notes that over 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, framing the figure as context for the potential breadth of the problem, according to NBC News.
Stanford Law School professor Mark Lemley told Reuters that Apple’s complaint ‘has the potential to be a very big case,’ but added that some of what Apple alleges, including the mass hiring of Apple employees, is not illegal in California, where state law permits employees to leave for a competitor. Attorney Patricia Lantzy, who leads Outside General Counsel’s employment practice, told Business Insider that Apple likely brought the complaint partly because litigation was the only mechanism available to determine what information OpenAI might have taken.
Apple says it first raised its concerns with OpenAI in February, before filing suit, and received no response. OpenAI’s public reply, posted on X after the complaint was filed, was brief: ‘We have no interest in other companies’ trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.’ The discovery process, when it begins, will test how well that statement holds up.
