Apple Targets 40 OpenAI Employees in Lawsuit

Apple has reportedly sent legal letters to roughly 40 former employees who now work at OpenAI, escalating its lawsuit against its former partner and emerging hardware rival over allegedly stolen trade secrets.

The Financial Times, citing unnamed sources, reports that the letters instruct recipients to preserve relevant documents and communications and ask them to meet with Apple’s lawyers. Apple is using the requests to gather evidence for its case. Neither Apple nor OpenAI immediately responded to requests for comment.

Apple’s allegations against OpenAI employees

Apple filed the lawsuit in a California federal court last week, naming OpenAI and two former Apple employees who now work for the company. The complaint alleges that OpenAI Chief Hardware Officer Tang Tan, a former Apple vice president, encouraged Apple employees interviewing at OpenAI to disclose confidential information. Tan is named as a defendant.

“He has directed job candidates still working for Apple to bring 'Actual parts' from Apple to their interviews for 'show and tell' sessions in which he and his team at OpenAI can elicit still more Apple confidential information.”

Apple also alleges that Chang Liu, a former senior systems electrical engineer, kept an Apple laptop after leaving the company and downloaded dozens of confidential hardware files. Liu is also named as a defendant.

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“This much is clear, however: 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.”

OpenAI told Reuters last week that it has “no interest in other companies' trade secrets.” CEO Sam Altman wrote on X that he was not “afraid” of Apple. Elon Musk also commented on the dispute, using the lawsuit to call Altman a scammer.

OpenAI’s hardware plans face scrutiny

The legal fight marks a sharp deterioration in a relationship that began with Apple integrating ChatGPT into its devices under a 2024 agreement. Earlier this year, Apple said it was revamping Siri with Google’s Gemini models.

OpenAI acquired io Products, the hardware startup founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, for $6.5 billion last year. Apple’s lawsuit names the startup as a defendant as well.

According to Bloomberg, the highly anticipated device being developed by OpenAI and io Products could be a screenless smart speaker capable of moving around on its own. The product is reportedly designed as a “humanlike AI companion” that can play music and other media, control home appliances, answer questions, and perform other tasks through ChatGPT. It is expected to be announced by the end of this year and launched in 2027.

OpenAI is also reportedly examining a separate mobile AI device. That hardware push would put the company into more direct competition with Apple, Google, and Amazon: rather than supplying the software on other companies' products, OpenAI wants to build and sell the devices people use to access its services.

The company has already made a smaller move into hardware. This week, it released its first branded hardware product, a $230 mini keyboard designed specifically for use with its Codex coding agent.