Apple Sues OpenAI and Former Employees Over Alleged Trade Secret

Leave a Comment / Cybersecurity, Data Protection, Enterprise Technology, Industry News / By cxojunction

Apple has filed a federal lawsuit against Open AI, alleging a coordinated effort to obtain confidential trade secrets as the race to develop consumer AI hardware continues to accelerate.

The 41-page complaint, filed on July 10, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, names OpenAI, its hardware subsidiary io Products, Chief Hardware Officer Tang Yew Tan, and former senior systems electrical engineer Chang Liu as defendants. The filing alleges that more than 400 former employees were recruited as part of a broader campaign to access confidential hardware designs, manufacturing processes, and supplier information.

According to the lawsuit, Tan, who spent 24 years with the company before joining OpenAI, used internal project codenames during interviews with current employees to gather details about unreleased products. He is also accused of asking candidates to bring hardware components to interview sessions and sharing an internal document outlining offboarding and security procedures to help new hires prepare for forensic checks after resigning.

The complaint further alleges that Liu retained a company-issued laptop after his departure and exploited an authentication flaw to maintain access to internal network storage. It claims he downloaded thousands of pages of confidential engineering and manufacturing documents, joked about the security weakness in private messages, and advised another former colleague on removing sensitive files without triggering security alerts. The filing also alleges that OpenAI approached suppliers using insider terminology to obtain proprietary information.

Apple is seeking to halt what it describes as an ongoing pattern of trade secret misappropriation rather than isolated incidents. The case highlights the growing competition between AI companies and hardware manufacturers, while reinforcing the need for stronger insider threat detection, secure employee offboarding, and better protection of valuable intellectual property.

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Source: Apple Sues OpenAI and Former Employees for Alleged Theft of Trade Secrets | Cyber Security News | https://cybersecuritynews.com/apple-sues-openai/