Tech giant Apple Inc. has officially filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. This step was taken following an alleged coordinated campaign by OpenAI to steal confidential information regarding Apple's future product lines.
In the lawsuit filed on Friday (10/7/2026) local time, Apple accuses OpenAI of actively encouraging the company's employees to leak sensitive data. This information includes details of component specifications, product designs, and other technical materials that are still in secret development.
Apple believes that these actions represent a systematic effort by OpenAI to bolster its capabilities in designing its own hardware ecosystem. Apple considers this action a serious violation of trade secrets that the company has long kept strictly confidential.
In addition to targeting the AI company, the lawsuit also names Tang Tan, a former Apple executive who now serves as the head of the hardware division at OpenAI. To date, litigation is ongoing in court to review evidence of the involvement of the parties in practices deemed to violate business ethics.
