Overview
- Earlier this month Apple filed a federal complaint naming OpenAI, io Products and two ex‑Apple engineers and seeking injunctions, document preservation and damages over alleged theft of confidential hardware designs.
- In its court filing Apple says OpenAI’s head of hardware asked job candidates to bring ‘actual parts’ from Apple to interviews and that another ex‑engineer downloaded unreleased files from an Apple laptop.
- In mid‑July Apple sent legal preservation letters to roughly 40 former Apple staff now at OpenAI, telling them to retain documents and, in some cases, meet with Apple lawyers as part of a broader evidence sweep.
- OpenAI has denied the allegations, saying it has no interest in other companies’ trade secrets and that it is unaware of evidence supporting the complaint, while Apple says injunctions could bar OpenAI from using Apple information in device work.
- The dispute arrives as OpenAI builds a consumer hardware arm after acquiring io and hiring hundreds of former Apple employees, raising legal questions about trade‑secret protection, worker mobility and possible impacts on product timelines and supplier ties.