Apple Sues OpenAI for Trade Secret Theft Tied to Hardware Recruitment

Apple filed suit against OpenAI in the Northern District of California on July 10, alleging trade secret theft and breach of contract. The complaint centers on Tang Tan, OpenAI's Chief Hardware Officer and former Apple VP of product design for iPhone, whom Apple accuses of using confidential project codes while recruiting and coaching departing Apple employees on extracting unannounced product details. A second engineer, Chang Liu, allegedly retained an Apple laptop and downloaded confidential technical documents after joining OpenAI in 2026. Apple sent OpenAI a February letter raising concerns and received no response.