Apple sues OpenAI and accuses rival of stealing secret information to create new products

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Apple filed a lawsuit this Friday (10) against OpenAI and two former employees, accusing the company responsible for ChatGPT of benefiting from confidential information from the iPhone maker to advance its entry into the electronic devices market.
The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that there was a coordinated action to obtain Apple's trade secrets, including information about product designs, manufacturing processes and supply chain strategies.
The action involves the OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC and io Products, as well as two former Apple employees: Chang Liu, who served as a senior electrical systems engineer, and Tang Yew Tan, former vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch.
What happened?
According to Apple, Liu allegedly failed to return a corporate notebook provided by the company and later exploited a failure in the authentication system to access the company's internal network.
The manufacturer claims that he downloaded "dozens of confidential hardware-related files" before leaving the company and joining OpenAI.
Apple also accuses Tan of having used internal company information to benefit OpenAI. According to the lawsuit, the former executive would have sent himself data on Apple suppliers and internal industry analyzes before his departure from the company.
According to big tech, Tan encouraged company employees to take Apple components to job interviews at OpenAI, in "show and tell" sessions. office."
More than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, the company said in the filing, saying it is "not surprising" that some of them were aware of confidential information.
The company further claims that OpenAI allegedly asked highly specific questions to suppliers about manufacturing processes and components used by Apple - information that the company says could only be obtained by someone with internal knowledge.
Apple also alleges that OpenAI convinced one of its business partners to perform metal finishing techniques developed by the iPhone maker for the artificial intelligence company's hardware designs, despite contractual limitations.
"Just because OpenAI now employs people who were previously responsible for Apple's trade secrets does not give the company the right to use that information to accelerate its hardware efforts," the iPhone maker wrote in the lawsuit.
Models of the iPhone 17 line at an Apple store in the US, in photo from September 19, 2025
Reuters/Shannon Stapleton
A billion-dollar rivalry
The process significantly increases tension between Apple and OpenAI, a relationship that has already been under pressure in recent months due to the dispute for talent and strategic technologies in the artificial intelligence sector.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
The rivalry between the two companies comes amid the race to develop new products based on artificial intelligence. In 2024, Apple announced the integration of its "Apple Intelligence" platform into applications such as Siri and also incorporated ChatGPT into its devices.
The partnership allows iPhone users to access ChatGPT responses through Siri and also subscribe to paid OpenAI plans directly through iOS system settings.
OpenAI expanded its operations beyond software by purchasing, last year, the hardware startup io Products, founded by the former Apple designer Jony Ive, in a deal valued at US$6.5 billion.
The agreement reinforced the company's strategy of creating physical products aimed at consumers. Ive, however, is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Last month, Apple released a Siri update that had been delayed for months. The company had promised major improvements to the virtual assistant two years ago, but the features have been repeatedly delayed.
*With information from Reuters

Source: G1