In a move that deeply shook the technology world, Apple is officially filing a lawsuit against the artificial intelligence giant OpenAI for stealing its trade secrets and intellectual property rights. According to the lawsuit in the document submitted to the Northern California District Court, OpenAI has been carrying out an organized information theft scheme that lasted for months, using former Apple employees to develop its own artificial intelligence hardware device.

At the center of the case are Tang Tan, who moved to OpenAI as Hardware Chief after serving as vice president of product design at Apple for many years, and Chang Liu, a former electrical engineer.

This legal war, which is rare in Silicon Valley, has the potential to directly affect the future interests of the two giant companies and the dynamics of the rapidly growing artificial intelligence hardware market.

Organized Information Theft: The Arguments Are Very Striking

The comprehensive documents that Apple submitted to the court contain very detailed and striking arguments. According to the statements, Tang Tan, the head of OpenAI’s hardware unit, uses the security vulnerabilities in the process of leaving Apple to his advantage.

It is claimed that Tan advised Apple employees who would move to OpenAI to keep their departures unknown until the last moment, thus gathering as much inside information as possible.

It is even stated that Tan stole an unknown document that Apple had prepared only for senior managers and contained the termination procedures, and showed this document to newly hired individuals in advance, teaching them how to bypass the company’s security protocols.

Not only that, Tan asks candidates who are still working at Apple to bring some modules, batteries and motherboards related to unknown projects to the interview in the job interviews he conducts on behalf of OpenAI.

Apple states that this is not an isolated incident and that many candidates were forced into similar “show and tell” sessions, emphasizing that what happened is a coordinated criminal pattern at the corporate level.

Engineer Having Fun with Network Security Violations and Vulnerabilities

Another critical name mentioned in the case file stands out as former senior systems electrical engineer Chang Liu.Allegedly, Liu did not return the Apple computer allocated to him after leaving the company and continued to infiltrate Apple’s internal networks by using a rare authentication vulnerability.

It is claimed that Liu transferred more than a thousand pages of closed production schemes and hardware documents to OpenAI servers in this process.

In fact, it is recorded in the court records that Liu sent sarcastic comments to another Apple employee named “Alyssa”, who was leaking inside information to him, when he realized that she could still access the network, saying “I found out that I can access the network storage, it’s very funny.”

Efforts to Infiltrate the Supply Chain and Rotten Foundations

Another noteworthy detail in Apple’s complaint is the scandals regarding suppliers. It is stated that OpenAI contacted Apple’s hardware suppliers directly, thanks to the secret information it stole.

It is even claimed that OpenAI is trying to deceive a manufacturer into using a metal coating technique, which is very confidential to Apple, for its own devices by deceiving it with the lie “We have permission from Apple”.

OpenAI, which currently employs more than 400 former Apple employees, is building an illegal hardware unit that, according to Apple’s claims, is built entirely on stolen information.

Apple calls OpenAI’s handling “rotten,” choosing to steal decades of innovation from the company rather than investing in developing legitimate hardware. In the statements included in the court documents, it is stated that the situation is “only the tip of the iceberg.”

What to Expect in the Legal Process?

Apple, which first noticed the incident in February, tried to contact OpenAI at that time, but when it received no response, it launched a comprehensive internal investigation.

It is a matter of great curiosity how the Siri – ChatGPT collaboration, which was announced in 2024 and made a big impact in the technology world at that time, will be affected by this case.

Apple specifically states in its documents that this software collaboration is not the subject of the case.

While former design chief Jony Ive’s company io Products, which was acquired by OpenAI in 2025, is also indirectly involved in the case, neither Jony Ive nor Sam Altman are personally listed as defendants.Apple requests an injunction to immediately stop the use of its stolen trade secrets and compensation for any losses that may occur.

At the same time, people such as Tang Tan and Chang Liu are being sued for violating confidentiality agreements.Possible answers from OpenAI in the coming days determine the direction of this giant scramble in the field.