Apple sues OpenAI for stealing trade secrets
Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging the company orchestrated a campaign to steal trade secrets and poach key employees to develop its own hardware. The suit specifically names OpenAI's hardware subsidiary and two former Apple engineers.
Why it matters
This legal battle threatens to disrupt the AI industry's competitive landscape and complicates OpenAI's path toward a potential IPO.
Apple on Friday sued OpenAI, accusing the artificial intelligence company of orchestrating a campaign to steal the iPhone maker's trade secrets as it tries to develop its own consumer hardware device.
The lawsuit — filed in a federal court in San Jose, California — paints a picture of an aggressive effort by OpenAI to poach Apple employees and extract confidential information to build its own device.
The lawsuit marks a dramatic escalation in tensions between two companies that partnered in 2024 to integrate ChatGPT into Apple's products.
That relationship has since deteriorated. Bloomberg reported in May that OpenAI was itself considering legal action against Apple, alleging the tech giant had failed to adequately promote the ChatGPT integration.
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