Can an Apple lawsuit derail OpenAI’s hardware plans?

Apple dropped a trade secrets lawsuit on OpenAI last Friday, and the allegations are not subtle. The suit accuses OpenAI of a pattern of misconduct aimed at getting current and former Apple employees to hand over confidential information, and it specifically names OpenAI's chief hardware officer, Tang Tan, a longtime Apple veteran. Apple also claims more than 400 of its former employees now work at OpenAI, a number that, on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, host Anthony Ha called a serious talent drain even accounting for how large both companies are. OpenAI's response so far has been terse: it says it isn't aware of any evidence the complaint has merit.

What makes this messy is timing. OpenAI has been quietly building a hardware division with Jony Ive, teased last year through a vague, almost cryptic video of the two sitting in a San Francisco coffee shop talking about legacy devices like phones and laptops. The rumored first product is a mobile smart speaker, something that would presumably listen constantly for voice commands. Podcast co-host Sean O'Kane pointed out that even if a court never grants an injunction or restraining order, a lawsuit like this tends to slow things down on its own, and he suspects that friction was exactly the point. Apple, he said, doesn't file this kind of thing casually.

The deeper complication is OpenAI's path toward an IPO. The company has confidentially filed, and depending on how much stock Sam Altman puts in his own cautious hints, that offering could land as early as the end of this year or slip into next. Right now, OpenAI's pitch to bankers and investors is built almost entirely around its software business, according to O'Kane, with hardware barely factored into the addressable-market story. If a chunk of that future growth was supposed to come from hardware, and this lawsuit throws sand in the gears, the math investors use to price the IPO could shift meaningfully.

There's also a question of appetite. OpenAI already went through a very public trial against Elon Musk and, by most accounts, came out ahead, though the testimony surfaced some awkward, if not damning, details about the company. Ha raised the obvious follow-up: does OpenAI now dread repeating that experience, or did it learn it can absorb the hit and move on? Korosec is betting on the latter, essentially arguing that this is a company that has already stress-tested the courtroom option and found it survivable. Whether that confidence is justified may depend on how strong Apple's evidence actually turns out to be once discovery starts.