Apple has accused former employees of taking confidential information to OpenAI, allegedly to support the AI company’s device development efforts.
Apple isn’t the first company to raise these concerns about OpenAI’s hiring practices. Elon Musk’s xAI filed its own trade secrets claims against OpenAI back in 2025, specifically targeting engineer Xuechen Li. That case was dismissed by a federal judge in June 2026.
Apple has been cautious about AI from the start. Back in 2023, the company restricted its own employees from using ChatGPT and similar tools internally, citing concerns about data leakage.
A partnership already under strain
Apple and OpenAI struck a deal to integrate ChatGPT into Apple devices, bringing conversational AI to the iPhone ecosystem. As of May 2026, the relationship between Apple and OpenAI had become strained enough that OpenAI was reportedly contemplating legal options against Apple over what it considered insufficient integration of ChatGPT into Apple’s products.
