# Apple sues ChatGPT maker OpenAI over stealing trade secrets to build rival hardware

*Published:* 2026-07-11
*Author:* Farzan Hussain

![Apple sues OpenAI over alleged trade secrets theft](https://bestforandroid.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Apple-sues-OpenAI-over-alleged-trade-secrets-theft.jpg)

Apple sued OpenAI, the organization behind ChatGPT, and the filing reads less like a corporate dispute and more like a charge. The company says the theft happened “at every level,” from junior staff to OpenAI’s own Chief Hardware Officer.

Apple filed suit this Friday in federal court in Northern California, accusing OpenAI, its hardware chief Tang Tan, and former Apple engineer Chang Liu of trade secret theft and breach of contract. Apple alleges OpenAI systematically extracted confidential information from current and former Apple employees to accelerate its own hardware device, as [reported by Bloomberg](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-10/apple-sues-openai-for-trade-secret-theft-in-blockbuster-case).

> >be Tang Tan  
> >24 YEARS at Apple  
> >VP of Product Design, iPhone AND Apple Watch  
> >you know every team. every project.   
> >every name worth taking  
>   
> >months BEFORE you leave:  
> >meet with OpenAI’s people  
> >email yourself Apple supplier intel  
> >apple is literally paying you while you betray… [pic.twitter.com/JsoPolJgy7](https://t.co/JsoPolJgy7)
> 
> — NIK (@ns123abc) [July 11, 2026](https://x.com/ns123abc/status/2075795797635956963?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)



It’s the kind of split that looks a lot like watching two people who used to run a company together suddenly need lawyers to talk to each other. Apple and OpenAI were partners [as recently as 2024](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-just-brought-chatgpt-iphones-100000715.html), when ChatGPT was deeply integrated into iPhone with iOS 18 software as a core component of Apple Intelligence.

Who Tang Yew Tan is and what he’s accused of
--------------------------------------------

Tan spent 24 years at Apple, most recently as VP of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch, before becoming OpenAI’s Chief Hardware Officer.

Apple’s filing alleges he used internal Apple codenames during recruiting calls with current Apple employees, asked job candidates to bring actual Apple hardware components like batteries, chips, and logic boards to interviews for “show and tell,” and circulated an Apple offboarding document to teach new OpenAI hires how to dodge exit security checks.

What the Chang Liu allegations claim
------------------------------------

Liu, a former senior electrical engineer at Apple, allegedly kept his company laptop after leaving and later found a bug that let him access Apple’s cloud storage from outside the company.

Apple says he downloaded dozens of confidential files, including specifications and engineering data on unannounced products, and advised other Apple employees applying to OpenAI on what to study before their interviews.

Does this affect the ChatGPT integration on your iPhone?
--------------------------------------------------------

Not immediately. Apple hasn’t said whether the lawsuit changes its existing ChatGPT partnership. Moreover, its upcoming Siri overhaul this fall is already built on Google’s Gemini instead of OpenAI’s models. But Apple says more than 400 former employees now work at OpenAI, and the filing calls the allegations “the tip of the iceberg.”

OpenAI’s response was brief: it has “no interest in other companies’ trade secrets.” Apple is asking the court to block OpenAI from using any of its technology and to force the company to hand back whatever it took.