Apple has filed a federal lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the ChatGPT maker of misappropriating some of its most sensitive proprietary information. The complaint, filed on July 10, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that OpenAI used insider knowledge from former Apple employees to accelerate its own consumer hardware ambitions.
Apple is seeking monetary damages under the Defend Trade Secrets Act, plus injunctions that would force OpenAI to stop using the allegedly stolen information and return or destroy any misappropriated materials.
What Apple is actually alleging
The lawsuit names two former Apple employees directly: Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan. Both are accused of coordinating the theft of confidential materials, including unreleased product designs, manufacturing processes, and supply chain details.
Apple’s complaint goes further than two individuals. The filing explicitly flags that over 400 former Apple employees are now working at OpenAI, which Apple frames not as coincidence but as a deliberate recruitment strategy designed to extract institutional knowledge.
