Apple sued OpenAI on Friday, alleging that a former Apple engineer exploited a server authentication bug to download confidential hardware files for weeks after leaving the company, and that the theft is part of a broader scheme that has drawn more than 400 ex-Apple employees to OpenAI. The complaint, filed July 13, 2026, asks the court for several injunctions to block OpenAI from using the allegedly misappropriated material as it builds a line of AI-powered consumer devices.
The central figure in Apple's filing is Chang Liu, an engineer who spent 8 years on what Apple describes as some of its most sensitive product programs before leaving for OpenAI in January 2026. On February 9, Apple says, Liu discovered an authentication bug on an Apple-issued work laptop he had not returned, giving him continued access to Apple's shared network folders. Over several weeks, according to the complaint, he downloaded dozens of confidential files covering unreleased products, engineering presentations, technical specifications, and proprietary project data.
One of the downloaded items, Apple says, was a presentation on its complex circuit board designs that would be "invaluable to anyone developing hardware." Some files were expressly marked confidential. Apple discovered the alleged theft while reviewing messages between Liu and a then-current Apple employee, Yu-Ting "Alyssa" Peng, in which Liu appeared to mock the company he had just left.
“I found out I can access the [network storage], so funny.”— Chang Liu, Former Apple engineer
Key facts
- 01Apple filed suit Friday, July 13, 2026, seeking injunctions to block OpenAI from using allegedly stolen confidential information.
- 02Former Apple engineer Chang Liu spent 8 years on sensitive product programs before leaving for OpenAI in January 2026.
- 03On February 9, Liu allegedly used an authentication bug to access Apple's shared network folders for several weeks after departing.
- 04Apple says OpenAI has poached more than 400 former Apple employees as part of the alleged scheme.
- 05Tang Yew Tan, a 24-year Apple veteran, became OpenAI's chief hardware officer in 2025 and is accused of directing the recruiting effort.
Apple says the bug has since been patched and that server logs show no other users appear to have exploited it to take confidential information. That confines the technical exposure but not the legal theory: Apple argues the Liu-Peng exchanges are the "tip of the iceberg" and that discovery will reveal a broader pattern of trade-secret theft by ex-Apple staff now inside OpenAI.
Directing the alleged recruiting scheme, according to Apple, is Tang Yew Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple as vice president of product design for the iPhone before joining Jony Ive's io Products and then becoming OpenAI's chief hardware officer in 2025. Apple accuses Tan of using insider knowledge, including secret project code names, to steer Apple employees into discussing unreleased products during interviews. The complaint also alleges Tan asked candidates to bring computer parts to "show and tell" sessions that would reveal proprietary technology beyond what reverse-engineering could uncover.
OpenAI told Ars Technica it is still reviewing the complaint but denies the core allegation.
Sam Altman responded on X over the weekend to a post suggesting OpenAI was rattled by the suit.
“I am not afraid of Apple, but I have tremendous respect for them.”— Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO
Apple's complaint pulls no punches on the framing. It claims 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," and that OpenAI's hardware business is "rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets." Apple also concedes it "lacks visibility into what's been happening behind closed doors at OpenAI."
Apple has taken this kind of fight before with mixed results. It settled a long-running dispute with Samsung in 2018 and dropped a chip design case against Nvidia in 2023. The evidentiary bar for trade-secret claims is high, and it remains unclear how much of what allegedly changed hands qualifies as proprietary versus the sort of general engineering knowledge employees carry between jobs. Bringing computer parts to hardware interviews, for instance, is a common industry practice.
The strongest exhibits Apple has surfaced so far are the messages left on Liu's returned laptop, which include coaching Peng on how to "avoid trouble" when she left Apple and how to prepare for OpenAI interviews without repeating mistakes made by ex-Apple staffers who "fumbled" by failing to volunteer insights into top-secret projects. Whether those chats amount to a coordinated theft ring or a pair of employees behaving badly on a work laptop is the question a court will now have to sort out. OpenAI has not yet filed a response.
The suit lands as OpenAI's hardware ambitions, built around Ive's io Products acquisition and Tan's team, move from rumor toward roadmap. Even if Apple never wins a verdict, the litigation gives it a tool it did not have last week: subpoena power over OpenAI's hiring pipeline, internal communications, and hardware design process at the exact moment OpenAI is trying to move fast. For OpenAI, the case raises the cost of every future hire from Cupertino and forces its hardware team to document a clean-room provenance for anything that ships. That is a real tax on speed, and slowing OpenAI down may be worth more to Apple than any damages award.
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