Apple has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing OpenAI, two former Apple executives, and affiliated companies of orchestrating the theft of confidential trade secrets related to the company's hardware development.

The lawsuit names former Apple senior system electrical engineer Chang Liu and former Apple vice president of iPhone and Apple Watch product design Tang Yew Tan as defendants, along with OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC, and io Products. According to Apple, more than 400 former Apple employees are now employed by OpenAI.

Apple alleges that Chang Liu failed to return a company-issued laptop after leaving the company and later exploited an authentication flaw to access Apple's internal systems. The complaint claims Liu downloaded dozens of confidential files containing sensitive hardware information.

The company also accuses Tang Yew Tan of collecting confidential supplier information, internal industry reports, and proprietary product details before his departure. Apple further alleges that Tan sought updates on secret internal projects from former colleagues and requested hardware components from Apple facilities for demonstration purposes.

According to the lawsuit, Apple contacted OpenAI in February to express concerns that its proprietary technologies were appearing in OpenAI's products. Apple claims it never received a response. OpenAI has not publicly commented on the lawsuit.

Apple is asking the court to issue a preliminary injunction requiring the defendants to preserve evidence, stop using Apple's confidential technology, and return all allegedly misappropriated trade secrets. If granted, the order could affect OpenAI's expanding consumer hardware ambitions.

The legal dispute marks a significant escalation in tensions between the two technology companies as competition in the artificial intelligence industry intensifies. Despite collaborating through Apple's integration of ChatGPT into Siri and Apple Intelligence features introduced in 2024, both companies now find themselves in a high-profile legal battle over intellectual property.

OpenAI strengthened its hardware ambitions last year by acquiring io Products a startup co-founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, Tang Yew Tan, and other former Apple leaders—in a deal reportedly valued at $6.5 billion. Ive is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

The case comes shortly after Apple released a long-awaited update to Siri, delivering AI-powered improvements that had faced multiple delays since first being announced.