OpenAI denies Apple trade-secret claims in hardware suit

OpenAI denied trade-secret theft allegations made by Apple in a filing submitted on Monday, 31 August, in U.S. District Court in San Jose. OpenAI argued that Apple failed to show any confidential information was stolen and stated that California law protects worker mobility between employers.

Apple sued OpenAI along with two former employees, Tang Tan and Chang Liu, in July. The complaint accused them of misappropriating trade secrets involving hardware design, manufacturing, and supply-chain operations as OpenAI builds out consumer devices. Court filings show OpenAI has hired roughly 400 former Apple staff members for its hardware initiative.

The legal action marks a sharp shift after both firms partnered two years ago to integrate ChatGPT into Siri and Apple Intelligence features. OpenAI executives noted that the agreement never produced the billions of dollars in subscription revenue OpenAI anticipated, while Apple has increasingly turned toward Google's Gemini to run its redesigned Siri to reduce reliance on a single partner.