Apple Sues OpenAI: Hardware Chief Ran Parts-Smuggling Scheme to Build AI Device

Apple’s federal trade-secrets lawsuit alleges that OpenAI’s former Chief Hardware Officer used job interviews and related recruiting activity to extract Apple’s most sensitive hardware secrets. The company filed the complaint on July 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against OpenAI, Tang Yew Tan, Chang Liu, and io Products, a design company OpenAI acquired in 2025 for about $6.5 billion. Apple says the alleged two-year campaign involved steering interviews with physical components such as batteries, logic boards, and System-in-Package modules—highly integrated chips said to reflect Apple’s semiconductor roadmap—along with alleged use of Apple internal project codenames. It also claims Tang forwarded supplier information to a personal email and circulated an internal offboarding document to help incoming OpenAI hires evade exit security procedures. Apple seeks a preliminary injunction that, if granted, could halt OpenAI’s forthcoming AI device before it ships. The filing is accompanied by standard legal and platform wagering-type disclaimers absent here; instead it focuses on trade secret protections and requests.