Apple is suing OpenAI, and the lawsuit reads like a corporate breakup gone nuclear

Apple and OpenAI used to need each other. This week Apple filed a lawsuit against its former partner accusing it of stealing trade secrets, and the breakup is getting messy fast.

The suit, filed in federal court in Northern California, alleges that OpenAI has been taking Apple's confidential information "at every level," from junior technical staff up to its chief hardware officer. That chief hardware officer is Tang Tan, a former Apple vice president who ran iPhone and Apple Watch product design before leaving in February 2024 to work with Jony Ive's hardware startup io Products, which OpenAI later acquired.

Apple's allegations against Tan are specific. It claims he forwarded Apple supplier information to his personal email before leaving, told incoming hires how to dodge Apple's exit security processes, and arranged for job candidates interviewing at OpenAI to bring actual Apple hardware components along for show and tell. Former Apple engineer Chang Liu, also named in the suit, is separately accused of taking a company laptop with him when he departed.

The scale is what makes this stand out. According to the filing, more than 400 former Apple employees are now working at OpenAI. Apple is not just annoyed about a handful of departures, it is arguing there has been a coordinated, sustained effort to hollow out its hardware talent and knowledge base.

The stakes go beyond hurt feelings. OpenAI has been building its own consumer AI hardware through io Products, and Apple is arguing that device relies on stolen Apple IP. Apple wants damages, an injunction and a court order forcing OpenAI to stop using whatever it took.

For context, Apple and OpenAI signed a headline partnership back in 2024 to bring ChatGPT into Siri and other Apple products. Watching that same relationship curdle into a courtroom fight over hardware secrets two years later is a proper reminder that Silicon Valley alliances are built on convenience, not loyalty.

OpenAI has not yet detailed a formal response beyond broadly disputing the claims. Given the company is also mid stride toward one of the most anticipated IPOs in tech history, a very public trade secrets fight is not the headline it needed this month.

Expect this one to run for a while. Discovery in a case built on "who emailed what to their personal account" tends to get very entertaining, very quickly.