Apple sued OpenAI on July 10, 2026. The complaint accused OpenAI of hiring former Apple employees who brought trade secrets with them. Over 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, according to Apple's filing.
On August 4, OpenAI published a full rebuttal on its blog. It included iMessage logs and email correspondence.
The evidence tells a different story.
Chang Liu left Apple on January 22, 2026. His last day was a Thursday. That same day, his former colleagues were messaging him for help. They asked him to transfer files, answer technical questions, and locate documents. One colleague wrote: "I can always give you some fun side projects."
On January 27, five days after Liu left, a colleague asked him about a technical decision: "Do you recall any discussions on [redacted]? ... I could ask several folks, but you are the best. Even if you don't work here anymore 😟"
On February 14, another colleague reached out: "Just in case you don't have enough work, I need some help. I have a vague recollection of you talking about [redacted]. Can you give me a brief refresh of this and point me to an EE who may have some knowledge?"
The same colleague joked: "This place is crazy… hahahah we use Ai all over the place."
On March 5, Liu was still being asked for technical guidance. A colleague wrote: "chang: if I understood correctly, you said that the [redacted] powers a downstream [redacted] ... Is that right? Who should I contact?"
An Apple manager responded to the thread: "Hi, this is highly irregular, please remove me from this thread."
Apple is suing a former employee for taking trade secrets. Its own employees kept asking him for help after he left.
The legal team's performance was equally revealing.
On February 23, 2026, Apple's outside counsel Gabriel Gross sent a letter to OpenAI's General Counsel Che Chang. He claimed they had spoken on the phone.
Che Chang responded: "This guy from Weil claims to be representing you. For some reason, he is lying about speaking with me on the phone. I don't know who he is and we have never spoken."
Gross apologized. He had confused Che Chang with another former Apple employee named Wang. He said they were "resolving any issues." He sent his letter to the wrong person.
Apple did not contact OpenAI again for five months. Then it filed a lawsuit.
Apple claims OpenAI's hardware business is "built on an extremely unstable foundation, the core of which has been corroded by illegally misappropriated trade secrets."
The lawsuit is not really about trade secrets. It is about AI hardware.
Apple's complaint acknowledged that over 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI. The list includes former Apple executives across product design, displays, antennas, supply chain management, hardware procurement, and more. OpenAI also acquired io Products, the firm founded by former Apple chief design officer Jony Ive. Tang Tan, a key Apple hardware executive, joined OpenAI through that deal.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman noted that even if Apple loses the lawsuit, it has already achieved one goal: slowing OpenAI's hiring. Legal uncertainty makes Apple engineers think twice about leaving.
The real battle is over the next computing platform. Bloomberg reported that OpenAI is developing an AI device that could challenge the iPhone. Analysts see it as a potential shift away from traditional mobile operating systems. Apple is trying to protect its ecosystem. OpenAI is trying to build the next one.
OpenAI chose not to settle privately or issue a standard legal statement. It published evidence directly on its blog. The company wrote: "Apple's request for a preliminary injunction is both based on false information and completely unnecessary because we do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets. We're much more interested in building innovative products and technologies that push the frontier."
This is not a standard legal response. It is a public trial.
Apple's lawsuit is not about trade secrets. It is about fear. Fear that OpenAI is building the next platform. Fear that hardware talent is leaving. Fear that the iPhone's dominance is not guaranteed.
The lawsuit has already achieved one thing: it exposed the gap between Apple's public narrative and its internal reality. Its own employees kept asking former colleagues for help. Its lawyers sent letters to the wrong person. The system Apple claims was breached was never properly closed.
P.S. Apple's lawsuit accused OpenAI of taking trade secrets. But the evidence OpenAI published suggests the secret was already leaving through the front door — and Apple's own employees were helping it walk out.
