--- title: Apple sues OpenAI over alleged trade secret theft description: Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging trade secret theft and breach of... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/apple-sues-openai-over-alleged-trade-secret-theft-qmzd2ut19 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Apple sues OpenAI over alleged trade secret theft | daily.dev og:description: Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging trade secret theft and breach of... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/apple-sues-openai-over-alleged-trade-secret-theft-qmzd2ut19 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/qMzd2uT19.png og:image:alt: Apple sues OpenAI over alleged trade secret theft og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Apple sues OpenAI over alleged trade secret theft **[TechCrunch](https://daily.dev/sources/tc)** · 4 min read · 7 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging trade secret theft and breach of contract. The complaint centers on OpenAI's Chief Hardware Officer Tang Tan, a 24-year Apple veteran, who is accused of using Apple's confidential project code names during recruiting, coaching departing Apple employees on evading security procedures, and soliciting details about unannounced products. Another former Apple employee, Chang Liu, is accused of failing to return an Apple laptop and using it to download and share confidential technical documents. The lawsuit comes as OpenAI is rumored to be developing a smartphone to compete with the iPhone, following its $6.5 billion acquisition of Jony Ive's design startup io. Apple is seeking a court order barring OpenAI from using its trade secrets, requiring return of confidential materials, and preserving evidence. Apple says it sent a letter to OpenAI in February raising concerns but received no response. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why is Apple suing OpenAI? Apple filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleging trade secret theft and breach of contract. The complaint names OpenAI's Chief Hardware Officer Tang Tan, a former 24-year Apple employee, and engineer Chang Liu, accusing them of using Apple's confidential project code names, coaching departing staff to evade security, and extracting details about unannounced products during recruiting. _Developers tracking corporate AI disputes can follow ongoing coverage of the Apple-OpenAI case on daily.dev._ ### Is OpenAI building its own smartphone hardware? OpenAI is rumored to be developing its first hardware product, which analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has suggested could be a smartphone relying on AI agents instead of traditional apps. OpenAI acquired Jony Ive's design startup io for 6.5 billion dollars to support these hardware ambitions, and Apple's lawsuit alleges this effort has relied on misappropriated Apple trade secrets. _Anyone weighing AI hardware trends against Apple's ecosystem can keep tabs on this story through daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [OpenAI Is Being Sued… Again. But This Time It’s Different.](https://daily.dev/posts/openai-is-being-sued-again-but-this-time-it-s-different--euskj6j6l) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#apple](https://daily.dev/tags/apple), [#openai](https://daily.dev/tags/openai), [#gpu](https://daily.dev/tags/gpu) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/apple-sues-openai-over-alleged-trade-secret-theft-qmzd2ut19) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Apple sues OpenAI over alleged trade secret theft","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/apple-sues-openai-over-alleged-trade-secret-theft-qmzd2ut19","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/apple-sues-openai-over-alleged-trade-secret-theft-qmzd2ut19"},"datePublished":"2026-07-10T20:34:19.456Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T19:27:04.021Z","description":"Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging trade secret theft and breach of...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/67973f9ad6e5c94ab4f4b46b0a51e1ff?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/67973f9ad6e5c94ab4f4b46b0a51e1ff?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"TechCrunch","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TechCrunch","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tc","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tc"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/apple-sues-openai-over-alleged-trade-secret-theft-qmzd2ut19","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":7},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"apple,openai,gpu","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TechCrunch","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tc"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Apple sues OpenAI over alleged trade secret theft"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/apple-sues-openai-over-alleged-trade-secret-theft-qmzd2ut19#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why is Apple suing OpenAI?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Apple filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleging trade secret theft and breach of contract. The complaint names OpenAI's Chief Hardware Officer Tang Tan, a former 24-year Apple employee, and engineer Chang Liu, accusing them of using Apple's confidential project code names, coaching departing staff to evade security, and extracting details about unannounced products during recruiting. Developers tracking corporate AI disputes can follow ongoing coverage of the Apple-OpenAI case on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Is OpenAI building its own smartphone hardware?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"OpenAI is rumored to be developing its first hardware product, which analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has suggested could be a smartphone relying on AI agents instead of traditional apps. OpenAI acquired Jony Ive's design startup io for 6.5 billion dollars to support these hardware ambitions, and Apple's lawsuit alleges this effort has relied on misappropriated Apple trade secrets. Anyone weighing AI hardware trends against Apple's ecosystem can keep tabs on this story through daily.dev."}}]} ```