Apple sues OpenAI, alleging artificial intelligence company stole trade secrets

Apple sues OpenAI, alleging artificial intelligence company stole trade secrets | Apple

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/10/apple-sues-openai-trade-secrets

Publish Date: 2026-07-10 18:33:00

Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI on Friday alleging the artificial intelligence firm stole company trade secrets in a move to create its own hardware device.

The suit claims OpenAI poached Apple employees, coaxing them to hand over confidential material, product designs and other tightly held information.

“Recently, significant evidence has emerged suggesting individuals employed by OpenAI wrongfully took Apple’s secret and confidential information regarding our unreleased technologies, processes, and products,” an Apple spokesperson said in an email.

Drew Pusateri, a spokesperson for OpenAI, said the company was reviewing the court filing. “We have no interest in other companies’ trade secrets,” he added. “We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.”

Apple’s lawsuit is a sharp turnaround for the two tech giants, which announced a major partnership in 2024. That deal involved Apple integrating OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT, into the operating systems for iPhones, iPads and Macs. But when Apple showcased its revamped voice assistant Siri last month, its AI component was based on Google’s Gemini AI model, rather than ChatGPT.

Tensions between the two companies began to simmer last year when OpenAI spent $6.4bn to acquire a hardware startup founded by former Apple design guru Jony Ive, indicating that the AI titan was foraying into hardware. Ive’s startup, io Products, is also named in Apple’s lawsuit.

“OpenAI’s nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets,” Apple wrote in its complaint.

The suit alleges several former Apple employees joined OpenAI, taking company trade secrets with them. Tang Yew Tan, OpenAI’s chief hardware officer and a former vice-president at Apple, is named in the suit. Apple alleges that Tan took information about Apple suppliers with him to OpenAI and encouraged interviewees…

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