Apple says more ex-employees may have taken confidential data to OpenAI

Apple's legal fight with OpenAI just got messier. The iPhone maker has filed for a preliminary injunction that would stop OpenAI from developing any device or product allegedly built on Apple's proprietary technology, and it's asking the court to fast-track discovery against a growing list of players: senior systems engineer Chang Liu, Chief Hardware Officer Tang Yew Tan, OpenAI itself, and io, the hardware startup Jony Ive co-founded after leaving Apple.

What makes this filing notable isn't just the injunction request. It's the scope. Apple says its investigation has turned up 11 additional former employees who may have witnessed or participated in the alleged theft, beyond Liu, Tan, and previously named OpenAI staffer Yu-Ting Peng. According to the filing, one ex-Apple employee allegedly met with Liu and Peng before Peng's OpenAI interview to discuss confidential details about unannounced products. Another supposedly took screenshots of internal Apple documents right before interviewing at OpenAI. And after Apple sued, several former employees now at OpenAI reportedly reached out about returning Apple-issued devices they'd never given back.

OpenAI isn't taking this quietly. In a public blog post, the company called Apple's injunction request baseless, insisting it has no interest in Apple's trade secrets because, as OpenAI put it, it would rather build products that push the frontier than borrow someone else's. OpenAI also went on offense, resurfacing Apple's own missteps in the case, including an email mistakenly sent to the wrong person after Apple mixed up two similar surnames. The company further claims Apple misrepresented conversations involving its general counsel and never acknowledged that the