On July 10, 2026, Apple Inc. filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that OpenAI and two former Apple employees—Liu and Chen—stole the company’s trade secrets and used the information in the research and development of OpenAI’s consumer hardware business.
Case Background
Apple has been deeply involved in the fields of consumer electronics R&D, supply chain management, manufacturing processes, industrial design, and hardware engineering for decades, with cumulative R&D investments totaling hundreds of billions of dollars. The company has accumulated a vast amount of trade secrets related to product development, manufacturing processes, supplier systems, and engineering technologies, and protects this information through multiple mechanisms, including confidentiality agreements, tiered access controls, and post-employment reviews.
According to the publicly filed complaint, OpenAI has begun expanding into the consumer hardware sector in recent years. In 2024, a former Apple executive surnamed Chen and others founded the hardware company io; in 2025, OpenAI completed the acquisition of io for approximately $6.5 billion, fully integrating its team, with Chen appointed as Chief Hardware Officer. Subsequently, OpenAI aggressively recruited Apple hardware engineers while establishing partnerships with supply chain companies that have long collaborated with Apple—such as Foxconn, Luxshare Precision, and Goertek—to advance the commercialization of its hardware products.
Apple alleges that during the rapid expansion of its hardware business, OpenAI did not rely entirely on its own R&D but instead systematically obtained Apple’s trade secrets—through means such as poaching Apple employees and liaising with Apple’s supply chain vendors—to shorten its own hardware development cycle.
Key Allegations
Allegations Against Two Former Employees
Liu, a former senior systems electronics engineer at Apple who worked on multiple confidential hardware projects within the iPhone product line, left Apple on January 22, 2026, to join OpenAI. The complaint reveals that upon leaving, Liu failed to return at least one company-issued work computer as required and did not complete the full exit process. Around February 9, 2026, he discovered a system authentication vulnerability that had not yet been detected by Apple, which allowed him to continue accessing Apple’s internal network file-sharing system after leaving the company. After discovering the vulnerability, Liu did not report it to Apple; instead, over the course of several weeks, he continuously exploited it to download dozens of confidential documents, including information on unreleased products, engineering presentations, technical specifications, and project materials. Among these was a compilation of over a thousand pages of technical documents detailing the manufacturing and testing processes for multilayer printed circuit boards (MLBs).
In addition, after joining OpenAI, Liu maintained close contact with a current Apple employee, continuously obtaining updates on Apple’s internal projects, supplier decisions, and engineering development progress; he also instructed the employee on how to copy internal Apple documents, circumvent monitoring by the company’s security team, and which internal materials to focus on preparing before attending an OpenAI interview. This employee ultimately left Apple on April 16, 2026, to join OpenAI. To evade Apple’s oversight, Liu also suggested that the two switch to private messaging apps like LINE for communication.
Another defendant, Chen, worked at Apple for 24 years and served as Vice President of Product Design for the iPhone and Apple Watch before leaving the company; he is currently OpenAI’s Chief Hardware Officer. While responsible for recruiting Apple employees, Chen repeatedly used his knowledge of Apple’s internal project codenames and R&D progress to press candidates for details about unreleased products and internal projects during interviews. The complaint states that some candidates began taking screenshots and downloading documents related to a highly confidential Apple project just hours before their interviews with Chen, and that Chen immediately asked in-depth questions about that project during the interviews.
Furthermore, he required some candidates to bring Apple hardware components, samples, and prototypes to the interview for demonstration, including batteries, mainboards (MLB), system-in-package (SiP) modules, shielding components, and other parts. Apple also alleges that Chen possessed an internal Apple management document marked “Need to Know,” which detailed security screening and confidentiality procedures for departing employees; OpenAI used this document to inform Apple employees planning to leave about the screening process in advance, helping them circumvent Apple’s security checks.
Allegations Against OpenAI
Apple contends that these actions were not the result of individual employees acting on their own, but rather that OpenAI had established a comprehensive recruitment and management system designed to steal trade secrets. The complaint states that OpenAI followed a set pattern when recruiting Apple employees: it required candidates to prepare technical presentations and slides related to their work at Apple, detailing information such as Apple’s internal CAD designs, system integration methods, manufacturing processes, and supplier management; requiring candidates to bring Apple hardware components, prototypes, and design materials to interviews; asking questions using internal Apple project codenames to prompt candidates to disclose undisclosed R&D information; and encouraging departing employees to forward internal Apple engineering documents to their personal email accounts for use after joining OpenAI.
In addition to leveraging employee channels, OpenAI also utilized supply chain resources controlled by former Apple executives to directly engage with Apple’s long-term manufacturing partners. Apple alleges that OpenAI (including io, a company it acquired) exploited Apple’s proprietary metal surface treatment process and related technical information to require a long-term partner—which had signed a confidentiality agreement with Apple stipulating that it would provide such services exclusively to Apple—to manufacture products using that proprietary process for OpenAI, while deliberately leading the partner to believe that this action had been authorized by Apple. Furthermore, leveraging its knowledge of Apple’s internal manufacturing processes and technical terminology, OpenAI approached another supplier regarding specific components—such as power supplies and batteries—and posed highly targeted technical questions to advance its own consumer-grade hardware projects.
In summary, Apple asserts that the defendants’ actions constitute trade secret infringement under the U.S. Trade Secrets Act, and that the relevant employees violated the intellectual property and confidentiality agreements they signed with Apple. Accordingly, Apple has filed multiple claims with the court, including requests for a preliminary injunction and a permanent injunction, an order requiring the defendants to immediately cease obtaining, using, or disclosing Apple’s trade secrets, return all materials related to the case, properly preserve relevant electronic evidence, and compensate Apple for all economic losses suffered as a result.
As of now, the case has only completed the filing stage, and neither party has yet made a public statement regarding the matter. IP Finance will continue to monitor further developments.
Attached: Complaint
