Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, alleging that a former employee stole trade secrets related to its hardware.
On July 10, Apple initiated a trade secret infringement lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against OpenAI and two former Apple employees.
Included in the lawsuit are Tang Yutan, OpenAI's Chief Hardware Officer, and Chang Liu. Tang Yutan worked at Apple for 24 years, serving as a vice president responsible for the design of the iPhone and Apple Watch, while Chang Liu was a senior systems electrical engineer at Apple for eight years. Apple claims that both individuals took confidential information from the company before moving to OpenAI.
Apple alleges that Chang Liu, who joined OpenAI in January, accessed internal storage using a vulnerability on a company-issued laptop that he did not return. During this process, he reportedly downloaded dozens of confidential files, including undisclosed product information and materials related to circuit board manufacturing. There are also allegations that Tang Yutan sent documents summarizing supply chain and industry trends to a personal email before leaving the company.
Additionally, Apple claims that its intellectual property, which it invested in to develop engineering specifications and manufacturing processes for products like the iPhone, Apple Watch, and MacBook, was unlawfully transferred to OpenAI.
Apple further alleges that OpenAI acted as if it had approval from Apple partners to access the company and obtained technologies such as metal finishing.
The lawsuit also names the hardware company io, which was acquired by OpenAI last year. io was founded by Jony Ive, the former Chief Design Officer at Apple, who oversaw the design of major products like the iPhone, MacBook, and iMac.
Apple is requesting the court to order an immediate halt to the use of the stolen trade secrets and to mandate the destruction of related materials, as well as compensation for damages incurred. OpenAI has not publicly commented on the lawsuit.
The relationship between Apple and OpenAI has shifted from collaboration in the AI sector to competition in the hardware market. Until 2024, the two companies maintained a partnership, agreeing to integrate ChatGPT into Apple's AI service, Apple Intelligence. However, the dynamics changed when Apple chose Google's Gemini as the AI model for its voice assistant Siri, while OpenAI pursued entry into the hardware market through its acquisition of io.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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