Apple Is Suing OpenAI Over Its Hardware Ambitions

Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in federal court in Northern California on Friday, and the language in the complaint is blunt: the company says OpenAI has been stealing its trade secrets and confidential information at every level, from technical staff up to its Chief Hardware Officer. That's a striking accusation to lob at a partner Apple stood next to just last year, when Sam Altman showed up at Apple's headquarters to announce ChatGPT's integration into the iPhone.

The warmth didn't last. Things started cooling once OpenAI announced it was moving into hardware and bought IO Products, the startup founded by former Apple designer Jony Ive, for $6.4 billion. Apple's Siri overhaul launching this fall, notably, now runs on Google's Gemini models rather than OpenAI's technology, a detail that says a lot about where things stand.

Most of the specific allegations center on people who moved between the two companies. Apple claims Tang Tan, OpenAI's hardware chief and a former Apple vice president, told job candidates still employed at Apple to bring actual Apple parts to interviews for what the filing describes as show-and-tell sessions designed to pull out more confidential information. Tan is named as a defendant. Apple also alleges OpenAI coached departing employees on how to dodge Apple's security checks on the way out, and that one ex-employee, Chang Liu, also named as a defendant, took an Apple laptop with him. Separately, Apple says it believes OpenAI has been asking outside hardware manufacturers to use a metal-finishing process Apple invented, while letting those partners think they had Apple's blessing to do it.

Both sides issued statements after the filing became public. Apple said significant evidence had emerged that OpenAI employees wrongfully took confidential information about unreleased Apple technology. OpenAI's response was terser, saying it has no interest in other companies' trade secrets and remains focused on building its own technology. OpenAI hasn't said when its hardware product will ship, though Altman mentioned back in November that early prototypes were already finished.

Apple hasn't said whether this lawsuit changes anything about its existing ChatGPT integration deal with OpenAI. But the timing is rough for OpenAI regardless — this suit lands just two months after OpenAI came out on top in a legal fight with Elon Musk over the company's nonprofit origins, and right as OpenAI is positioning itself for what's expected to be a major IPO. Apple, for its part, is asking for damages, injunctions, and a court order barring OpenAI from using whatever trade secrets it's accused of taking.