Apple's OpenAI Trade-Secret War Ramps Up With Preservation Letters To Dozens Of Ex-Employees

Apple's legal fight with OpenAI is spilling well beyond the courtroom. A week after suing the ChatGPT maker over alleged theft of its hardware secrets, Apple's lawyers have sent personal document-preservation letters to about 40 former Apple employees now working at OpenAI, according to the Financial Times - roughly 10 percent of the some 400 ex-Apple staff now at the company. The letters direct recipients to retain records and demand meetings with Apple's attorneys, FT reports, a breadth that signals the dispute could widen far past the two people named in the original complaint.

The escalation builds on the blockbuster suit Apple filed July 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing OpenAI, io Products, and former Apple personnel of misappropriating trade secrets to fast-track AI hardware development. As we reported at the time, the complaint lays out a months-long scheme centered on two former Apple employees now at OpenAI: Tang Tan, OpenAI's chief hardware officer and a former Apple VP of product design, and Chang Liu, a former Apple senior electrical engineer.

Apple alleges the pair directed OpenAI recruits still working at Apple to hand over confidential details on unreleased devices, components, manufacturing processes, and suppliers. According to the filing, Tan instructed interviewees to bring "actual parts" - batteries, logic boards, chip packages - for "show and tell," used Apple's internal codenames to draw out information only insiders would know to ask about, and circulated an Apple "Need to Know" offboarding document to coach new OpenAI hires on how to dodge the company's exit-security checks.

The complaint's allegations against Liu are equally striking. Apple says he kept a work-issued laptop after leaving and discovered a bug that let him reach Apple's cloud file storage while employed at OpenAI, allegedly downloading dozens of confidential files. "LOL, I found out I can access the [network storage], so funny," he wrote to a former colleague still at Apple, according to the filing. Apple further alleges OpenAI approached one of its suppliers using confidential design information and had a partner perform a proprietary metal-finishing technique, misleading the partner into believing Apple had granted permission.

Apple describes the conduct as "the tip of the iceberg" and says OpenAI's hardware business is "rotten to its core" by its reliance on misappropriated information. The company says it first contacted OpenAI in February with its concerns and received no response before filing suit.

OpenAI has denied wrongdoing. "We have no interest in other companies' trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere," a company representative said.

The clash marks a stark reversal for two firms that entered a high-profile partnership in 2024, integrating ChatGPT into Apple Intelligence and Siri. Apple has since turned to Google, using its models as the foundation for a ChatGPT-style voice and text assistant unveiled in June. OpenAI's own hardware push is being led by former Apple design chief Jony Ive - not named in the suit - whose startup io OpenAI acquired last year in a deal valued at $6.5 billion. The mounting legal exposure lands as OpenAI gears up for what is expected to be a historic IPO.