OpenAI publishes private messages in Apple legal battle

A legal battle between Apple and OpenAI turned unexpectedly public Monday when OpenAI released private employee messages and attorney emails to challenge Apple’s claim that the company stole trade secrets for a new hardware business.

Allegations of Stealing Trade Secrets

The dispute centers on a lawsuit Apple filed in July. The complaint alleges that OpenAI turned job interviews with Apple engineers into a pipeline for confidential information. The allegations cover physical components, manufacturing methods, and details about unreleased products.

Apple says OpenAI used that information to accelerate its push into consumer hardware. The lawsuit names OpenAI, its io Products hardware unit, chief hardware officer Tang Tan, and engineer Chang Liu. Apple is seeking damages and an order barring the defendants from accessing or using its information.

The company also wants forensic inspections of devices and cloud accounts to find any remaining Apple material.

The Case Against Chang Liu

The specific actions of engineer Chang Liu form the central focus of Apple’s attempt to reach inside OpenAI’s hardware operation. Liu left Apple in January and joined OpenAI days later.

Apple acknowledges that around his departure, he helped former colleagues copy work files from his personal iCloud account back to the firm. The company says employees continued asking him questions about his earlier work and where certain information was stored.

However, Apple alleges that Liu subsequently exploited a separate authentication vulnerability at least five times between February and April.

During this period, he allegedly downloaded thousands of pages from Apple’s third-party cloud storage while working at OpenAI.

The files allegedly concerned the power systems behind Apple device screens, as well as architecture and fabrication decisions, unreleased features, and an unannounced product.

Public Releases and Email Errors

On August 3, OpenAI called Apple’s case “careless, aggressive and oddly personal.” The company published messages showing that Apple employees continued asking Liu to locate files and answer technical questions even after he left.

The employee asked if a 64GB drive would function. Liu replied that approximately 200 gigabytes were needed. The employee later wrote, “Still copying.”

OpenAI argues these messages show Liu was helping former colleagues and that Apple failed to terminate former employees’ access properly. Apple concedes the initial cooperation between Liu and his former colleagues, but insists the conduct at the heart of their injunction request happened later.

The companies also failed to agree on safeguards after Apple sued. Apple says OpenAI agreed in principle to stop accessing confidential information, but they could not agree on Apple’s requests to inspect relevant devices and accounts.

Apple outside counsel Gabriel Gross contacted OpenAI general counsel Che Chang in February. However, Gross accidentally sent an email intended for another former employee. The message thanked Chang for a telephone call that never occurred. Gross apologized the next day.

The decision to release private messages shifts the burden of proof from the courtroom to the public square.

Releasing internal communications forces the legal system to compete for attention with a press release, often resulting in a distorted view of reality where edited excerpts are mistaken for the full truth.

Expanding the Investigation

Apple also accuses Tang Tan of using his knowledge as a former executive to question employees interviewing at OpenAI about unreleased products, suppliers, and manufacturing processes. Tan, a former Apple executive, co-founded io Products with Jony Ive and now leads OpenAI’s hardware efforts alongside Sam Altman and Ive.

The investigation has expanded to 11 additional former employees now at OpenAI who may have witnessed relevant events or retained information.

One of these individuals allegedly began taking screenshots and downloading confidential material about an Apple project in the hours before an OpenAI interview.

Apple also accuses Liu of coaching Yu-Ting “Alyssa” Peng, then an Apple employee, on copying files “to avoid trouble with the security team.”

Upcoming Legal Proceedings

The allegations have not been proven in court. A hearing on Apple’s injunction request is scheduled for October 1. Apple is now asking the court to impose those measures.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Eric Goldman, a Santa Clara University law professor, tells the outlet that Apple and OpenAI are simultaneously fighting in court and in the press.

“Apple and OpenAI are simultaneously fighting in court and in the press,” Goldman says. The release was likely carefully vetted by OpenAI’s legal and communications teams, and he does not see additional risk in publishing the evidence.

But he cautions against treating either company’s public version as an established fact. “OpenAI’s fact claims are no more or less credible than the fact claims Apple made in its complaint,” Goldman says. “Ultimately, we’re most likely to find out the true story later in the court proceedings.”