Apple filed a lawsuit on Friday, July 10, 2026, against OpenAI and a former Apple engineer named Chang Liu. The company also named Tang Yew Tan, OpenAI's chief hardware officer, in the complaint, though he is not listed as a defendant. Apple claims the companies stole trade secrets — confidential design plans and hardware prototypes that belong to Apple.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in California and says Liu used a security flaw to access Apple's internal computer systems without authorization. Apple alleges that Liu used a work computer belonging to another Apple employee, Yu-Ting "Alyssa" Peng, to get into systems he should not have been able to reach.

The most serious allegations center on Tang Yew Tan. Tan spent 24 years at Apple, most recently designing iPhone and Apple Watch products. Apple claims that when Tan was recruiting Apple employees to join OpenAI, he asked them to bring actual hardware parts, design files, and prototypes to their job interviews. Apple also alleges that OpenAI taught departing Apple workers how to hide what they were taking and avoid setting off Apple's security systems TechCrunch.

Neither Apple nor OpenAI has released a detailed response to these claims. Reuters reported the lawsuit under the headline "Apple sues OpenAI, two former employees for trade secrets theft" Reuters. CNBC and other outlets confirmed the filing on the same day CNBC.

The allegations matter because they go beyond the typical situation where an employee leaves one company and joins another. When someone switches jobs, they are allowed to use their experience and skills — that is a normal part of how talent moves around Silicon Valley. What they cannot legally do is take confidential documents, physical prototypes, or design plans that their old company owns. Apple is claiming that is exactly what happened here, and that OpenAI encouraged it.

The authentication bug allegation adds another layer. If Liu exploited a security weakness in Apple's systems to access information he normally could not reach, that would suggest this was not a careless mistake but an intentional breach. Courts look closely at this kind of detail when deciding if a company was truly stealing secrets rather than just hiring smart people who happen to remember things from their previous job.

What makes this case unusual is the role of Tan. He is not being sued directly, but Apple argues he was actively directing job candidates who still worked at Apple to physically bring hardware and designs to their interviews. This is different from the more familiar story of someone copying files on their last day of work before heading to a new job. Tan's position as OpenAI's chief hardware officer — responsible for building new devices — gives the allegations added significance.

Today, Apple and OpenAI are not direct competitors in the way they once might have been. Apple has mainly partnered with other companies for artificial intelligence technology rather than building its own advanced AI systems. OpenAI has moved into hardware under Tan's leadership. Still, the lawsuit reveals how many people have moved between these two companies over recent years, and how tense things can become when they do.

Talent moving between rival companies is nothing new in the technology world. What is less common is a major tech company filing a lawsuit that says a chief executive at another company was systematically asking departing employees to steal physical prototypes and design plans. The case will likely become a reference point for lawyers and human resources departments at other tech companies as they watch how courts handle it. If the lawsuit goes forward, discovery — the legal process where both sides hand over internal documents and emails — could reveal whether Tan's actions were official policy at OpenAI or something he was doing on his own.

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Key Takeaways

• Apple accuses OpenAI and three individuals of stealing confidential designs and hardware prototypes.
• The lawsuit claims an exploit of Apple's security systems was used to access restricted files.
• The allegations specifically name Tang Yew Tan, OpenAI's hardware chief, for allegedly asking departing Apple employees to bring physical prototypes to job interviews.
• Neither company has given a detailed public response.
• The case could influence how tech companies handle recruitment of workers from rivals.