# Apple sues OpenAI, alleging it stole trade secrets

> Apple has taken OpenAI to federal court in Northern California, accusing the AI company and the hardware design shop io Products of a coordinated effort to strip confidential secrets out of Cupertino. The complaint claims OpenAI recruited former Apple staff, including onetime hardware chief Tang Tan, and used interviews to draw out proprietary product details, while another departing engineer allegedly walked off with a company laptop. More than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, and Apple frames that migration as the vehicle for the alleged theft. The suit lands after OpenAI paid $6.4 billion for io Products, the design startup tied to former Apple luminary Jony Ive, and it crystallizes a rivalry that curdled once OpenAI made clear it wanted to build hardware of its own. What was once a supplier-style relationship has turned adversarial as both companies chase the same prize, the first genuinely new AI device category. Beyond the courtroom theatrics, the case is a marker of how fiercely talent and trade secrets are now contested in AI. When people carry the know-how, poaching and litigation become part of the competitive playbook.

_Section: [Daily AI Updates](https://www.wortins.com/daily-ai) · Source: Fortune · Published Sunday, July 12, 2026_

## Wortins' read

Apple has taken OpenAI to federal court in Northern California, accusing the AI company and the hardware design shop io Products of a coordinated effort to strip confidential secrets out of Cupertino. The complaint claims OpenAI recruited former Apple staff, including onetime hardware chief Tang Tan, and used interviews to draw out proprietary product details, while another departing engineer allegedly walked off with a company laptop. More than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, and Apple frames that migration as the vehicle for the alleged theft. The suit lands after OpenAI paid $6.4 billion for io Products, the design startup tied to former Apple luminary Jony Ive, and it crystallizes a rivalry that curdled once OpenAI made clear it wanted to build hardware of its own. What was once a supplier-style relationship has turned adversarial as both companies chase the same prize, the first genuinely new AI device category. Beyond the courtroom theatrics, the case is a marker of how fiercely talent and trade secrets are now contested in AI. When people carry the know-how, poaching and litigation become part of the competitive playbook.

## Source

[Read the full story at Fortune](https://fortune.com/2026/07/10/apple-openai-lawsuit-trade-secrets-theft-allegations/)

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