SAN FRANCISCO — Apple filed a trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI. The legal action accuses the artificial intelligence company of systematically soliciting confidential information from current and former Apple employees and stealing unreleased product intellectual property.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Apple accused OpenAI of a pattern of misconduct aimed at getting current and former Apple employees to share confidential information.

It accused OpenAI of stealing intellectual property about products that were still in their development phase. The complaint alleges that OpenAI directed job candidates still working for Apple to bring actual parts from Apple to their interviews.

Apple named OpenAI Chief Hardware Officer Tang Tan in the lawsuit. It alleged that Tang Tan directed candidates to bring parts for "show and tell" sessions to elicit confidential information.

It accused former Apple employee Chang Liu of using a co-worker's Apple-issued laptop to download confidential files about unreleased products and technical presentations. The complaint explicitly names OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC, and io Products, LLC as corporate defendants, in addition to individual defendants Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan.

It alleged that Yew Tan used an Apple internal project codename to inquire about an unannounced product during recruitment processes, seeking details about its development plan. OpenAI instructed employees to evade Apple’s security protocols by not disclosing their job changes to Apple, with Yew Tan sharing internal Apple documents about employee departure procedures with new hires before they gave notice.

It stated in the filing that more than 400 Apple employees now work at OpenAI. It wrote to OpenAI in February to raise concerns about intellectual property reaching its business. It stated in the filing that OpenAI never responded to its February letter.

An OpenAI spokesperson said, "We have no interest in other companies' trade secrets." An OpenAI spokesperson said, "We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere." OpenAI stated it is "not aware of any evidence that this complaint has merit."

OpenAI is working on a hardware division with Jony Ive. OpenAI's first hardware device is reportedly a mobile smart speaker. PureSource News previously reported that OpenAI expects to deploy the Jalapeño chip by 2026.

Sean O'Kane, a podcast host, said, "Even setting aside whether or not the court grants any kind of injunctive relief or any kind of restraining order over what OpenAI is doing, it just naturally can lead to that sort of situation where it’s going to cause some delays in what OpenAI is working on." O'Kane said, "Which I’m sure was probably part of the reasoning behind Apple doing this." O'Kane said, "They don’t do this stuff willy nilly."

Apple is an American multinational technology company based in Cupertino, California, that was established in 1976. The lawsuit targets OpenAI's growing hardware ambitions, which include a reported mobile smart speaker and a hardware division led by former Apple designer Jony Ive.

The legal dispute shows the competitive tensions as OpenAI expands beyond software into physical devices. Research titled Enjoining Employees from Soliciting the Trade of Former Employers was published in 1916 in The Yale Law Journal, indicating a long legal history surrounding employee mobility and trade secrets.