Apple has sued OpenAI and two former Apple employees, accusing the ChatGPT maker of systematically obtaining and using confidential Apple information to accelerate its move into consumer AI hardware, The Wall Street Journal reported on July 13.
Tang Tan And Chang Liu At The Center
The complaint centers on Tang Tan, a former Apple product-design executive who left to become OpenAI's chief hardware officer, and engineer Chang Liu. Apple alleges that confidential product information, supplier details, hardware components and manufacturing know-how were transferred or solicited as OpenAI assembled its consumer-device team. OpenAI has denied having any interest in using another company's trade secrets. The suit is a dramatic breakdown between two firms that were partners as recently as last year, when Apple wired ChatGPT into Apple Intelligence across its devices.
A Jony Ive Device In The Crosshairs
The dispute is really a fight over the next hardware era. OpenAI is working with former Apple design chief Jony Ive on a family of AI-native consumer devices meant to sit alongside — and eventually challenge — the smartphone as the primary interface for personal computing. Apple, meanwhile, is trying to protect decades of hardware expertise while pushing back against criticism that it has moved too slowly on generative AI, days after also announcing that longtime CEO Tim Cook will hand the reins to hardware engineering chief John Ternus on September 1.
Talent Wars Turn Legal
A prolonged legal battle could expose details about OpenAI's hardware roadmap, Apple's internal development processes and how specialized engineering talent moves across Silicon Valley. It lands the same week rival OpenAI shipped GPT-5.6 and ChatGPT Work after government review, and just days after OpenAI launched GPT-live full-duplex voice for ChatGPT — further blurring where hardware ends and software begins.
Reporting based on The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and The Verge coverage.