It seems the love story and collaboration that began between Apple and OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into the Apple Intelligence system has suddenly turned into an industrial espionage thriller! Apple has filed a bombshell lawsuit against OpenAI, explicitly accusing it of “stealing trade secrets” related to its products and hardware. The matter went beyond the usual attempts to poach employees, extending to training them on how to leak confidential information and bypass Apple’s security systems.
Details of the Internal Conspiracy: How Was the Breach Executed?
The details of the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, point to a “systematic and deliberate” operation to obtain as many of Apple’s technical secrets as possible. The lawsuit focused on two former Apple employees, Zhang Liu and Tang Tan. Notably, Tang Tan had joined legendary designer Jony Ive to establish an AI-based hardware project for OpenAI, where he currently serves as the head of the hardware division.
Surprisingly, Apple completely avoided directly mentioning Jony Ive or Evans Hankey (who took over Apple’s designs after Ive) in the lawsuit, limiting its reference to the project as an “initiative co-founded by Mr. Tan and other former Apple leaders.” It seems Apple’s primary target now is Tang Tan and Zhang Liu, who led the infiltration operation.
As for Zhang Liu, who worked as an electrical systems engineer at Apple for eight years, Apple accuses him of premeditated planning to steal data before moving to OpenAI in January 2026. The company asserts that after his departure, he refused to return his official devices and documents, and even breached Apple’s secure network using a rare and previously unknown software vulnerability to steal and download dozens of sensitive files related to unannounced hardware and equipment.
Top Secret Sessions and Documents
The other, more dangerous part of the case concerns Tang Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple and served as Vice President of iPhone and Apple Watch product design, giving him access to the company’s most sensitive projects and industrial partners. Apple accuses him of using these secrets and information to build the new hardware division at OpenAI.
According to the investigations, Tan used secret code names for Apple projects during job interviews with current Apple employees. He even went so far as to ask them to bring prototypes and hardware components from inside Apple to show them during private testing sessions and interviews at OpenAI! Even worse, he advised employees who were accepted not to inform Apple of their move to OpenAI until the very last moment to ensure they maintained access to Apple’s network and could extract as much data as possible.
It didn’t stop there; Tan illegally obtained an internal document marked “Need to Know,” which explains the security protocols followed by Apple when employees leave. He was sharing this document with new candidates to train them on how to leak files and avoid raising the suspicions of Apple’s security team.
A Corrupt Foundation and Decisive Justice
In its strongly worded statement, Apple described OpenAI as working collectively and systematically to steal its innovations, noting that “OpenAI’s nascent hardware business now stands on a corrupt and rotten foundation, due to its illegal reliance on stolen trade secrets.”
Apple considers what has been discovered so far to be just the “tip of the iceberg,” as investigations are ongoing to determine the true volume of files and data that were leaked. With this lawsuit, Apple aims not only to punish those involved but also to prevent OpenAI from using any technology belonging to it in its upcoming devices. Will Apple succeed in curbing the ambitions of Sam Altman and Jony Ive in the hardware world, or will this legal battle reveal even more exciting secrets?
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