In July 2026, Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in the Northern District of California federal court, accusing its former employees of stealing trade secrets and engaging in improper coordination at an institutional level. OpenAI denied the allegations, stating that the company had no intention of obtaining any corporate intellectual property and questioning Apple’s excessive focus on details. Although Apple’s lawsuit rarely mentioned CEO Sam Altman, it directly named former Apple employees Chang Liu and Tang Tan as defendants, accusing them of taking or retaining confidential information upon leaving the company. The two parties had previously collaborated extensively, including OpenAI’s acquisition of Jony Ive’s IO Company. Apple applied for a preliminary injunction in the lawsuit, and OpenAI responded that this move was intended to delay its hardware plans. This lawsuit marks a significant shift in relations between the two parties since their announcement of the ChatGPT integration cooperation in June 2024.
Apple sued OpenAI, accusing it of violating laws by stealing trade secrets. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, said in an interview that he is a “big Apple fan” and expressed disappointment over the lawsuit. Apple filed the lawsuit in July, claiming that OpenAI had engaged in improper coordination at an institutional level; OpenAI responded by stating that it had no intention of stealing other companies’ trade secrets and questioned Apple’s excessive focus on details. Although Altman rarely appeared in Apple’s 40-page complaint, the document directly named former Apple employees Chang Liu and Tang Tan as defendants, accusing them of taking or retaining confidential information upon leaving the company. The two parties had previously collaborated extensively, including OpenAI’s acquisition of Jony Ive’s IO Company. Apple requested a preliminary injunction in the lawsuit, and OpenAI responded that this move was intended to delay its hardware plans.
In July 2026, Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in the Northern District of California federal court, accusing it of stealing trade secrets from former employees. OpenAI denied the allegations, stating that the lawsuit damaged Apple’s reputation. CEO Sam Altman said it was “sad” and emphasized that the company had no intention of obtaining any corporate intellectual property. The lawsuit did not list Altman as a defendant; it only identified two OpenAI employees who worked at Apple and were suspected of taking confidential information without authorization. This lawsuit marked a major shift in relations between the two parties since their announcement of the ChatGPT integration cooperation in June 2024.