Someone Stole Trade Secrets From Apple And Went to OpenAI — Now OpenAI is Under Fire And Being Sued

Apple is probably the last company you want to fight in court. Here’s what happened.

Source: : Will Oliver/EPA/Bloomberg

Two of the world’s biggest tech companies — Apple and OpenAI, are at each other’s throat today.

Apple just sued OpenAI. And its a blockbuster lawsuit. Each day a new layer of dispute is peeled off for the world to see. And there’s much more to come.

And Elon Musk is sure having a lot of fun.

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Here’s what happened.

The Deal That Was Supposed to Change Everything

Back in 2024, **Apple and OpenAI announced a partnership. ChatGPT would come to iPhones, iPads, and Macs. It sounded perfect — Apple’s hardware, OpenAI’s AI. Tim Cook called it a “new era.” But something changed**.

OpenAI started building its own hardware.

Source: OpenAI

In 2025, OpenAI paid $6.5 billion to acquire **io Products — a design studio founded by[ Jony Ive](https://www.lovefrom.com/jony), Apple’s legendary former design chief. The man behind the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone**. The man who defined Apple’s minimalist aesthetic for nearly three decades.

**Sam Altman** called it “the next chapter in computing.” Jony Ive and his team of roughly 55 engineers joined OpenAI.

And Apple watched. Closely.

Then Everything Unraveled

The Bad

On July 10, 2026, Apple filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The targets? **OpenAI,[ io Products](https://openai.com/sam-and-jony/)**, and two former Apple employees who now work for OpenAI.

**Tang Yew Tan** — spent 24 years at Apple. Vice President of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch. Now OpenAI’s Chief Hardware Officer.

Chang Liu — senior electrical engineer. Worked at Apple for eight years. Left in January 2026.

Apple’s allegations are devastating:

• Liu allegedly failed to return his work-issued laptop and accessed a former colleague’s work computer after leaving. He downloaded dozens of confidential hardware-related files — engineering presentations, technical specifications, unreleased product data.
• Tan allegedly took information about **Apple* suppliers with him to OpenAI and instructed job candidates still working at Apple to bring actual Apple parts* to their interviews for “show and tell.”
• **OpenAI allegedly coached [Apple](https://www.apple.com/)** employees on how to leave the company and avoid security protocols.
• **OpenAI* interviewers allegedly told prospective hires to bring “actual parts” as “props”* from Apple during interviews.
• **OpenAI allegedly approached [Apple’s](https://www.apple.com/)** manufacturing partners — including asking one to demonstrate Apple’s metal-finishing techniques.

Apple says it sent a letter to OpenAI in February 2026 raising concerns. OpenAI never responded.

“OpenAI’s nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations,” Apple wrote in its lawsuit. “Rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets.”

OpenAI’s response?

“We have no interest in other companies’ trade secrets,” said Drew Pusateri, an OpenAI spokesman. “We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.”

They claim hiring over 400 former Apple employees is just “normal industry practice.”

Yes, we believe that. eye rolls

The Irony

Remember when OpenAI and Jony Ive’s collaboration was announced? The sleek videos? The billion-dollar promises?

Turns out, the same thing happened before.

In 2025, OpenAI had to wipe Jony Ive’s name and all promotional material from their website due to a trademark lawsuit from a smaller startup called IYO.

Now, another lawsuit. Another erasure. Another dream crashing into legal reality.

And this time, it’s Apple holding the sword.

The Bigger Picture

Why this matters:

1. This is not just about two employees. Apple alleges a “coordinated pattern of misconduct at an institutional level” by OpenAI.
2. The timing is brutal. OpenAI is expected to release its first hardware product — an AI keyboard — this month, and is planning a massive IPO.
3. The partnership is dead. Apple recently shifted its AI features to **Google’s Gemini** model.
4. The stakes are enormous. This isn’t about software. It’s about hardware — Apple’s sacred ground. Legal experts say most AI trade secret cases focus on software; this one involves hardware, making it far more complex.

Apple is seeking:

• An injunction preventing OpenAI from possessing or using Apple’s trade secrets
• Unspecified monetary damages

The Human Element

You have to feel for Jony Ive.

The man who built Apple’s design legacy. The man who worked with Steve Jobs to revolutionize the smartphone.

Now his new venture — his $6.5 billion baby with OpenAI — is being called “rotten to its core” by his former employer.

He’s not named in the lawsuit. But his company, io Products, is.

And you have to wonder: Did he know?

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