OpenAI blames Apple security practices in trade secrets lawsuit

OpenAI blames Apple security practices in trade secrets lawsuit

Tue, September 1, 2026 at 3:30 PM GMT+3 3 min read

OpenAI denied Apple's allegations of trade secret theft on Monday, arguing that the iPhone maker's own security policies and offboarding procedures were responsible for any improper access to its internal files, according to Reuters.

"This dispute is a mess of Apple's own making, and it is trying to blame everyone else," OpenAI said in a filing in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California. The company added that Apple "cannot use its own sloppy procedures to blame others for its own mess."

OpenAI's filing pointed to two specific Apple practices it said created the conditions for the dispute. The company said Apple encourages employees to use personal iCloud accounts to access work documents, making it difficult for departing workers to separate personal and company files. OpenAI also took issue with Apple's practice of walking departing workers out immediately, arguing that it leaves employees no meaningful window to return equipment, move internal data back to the company, or transition their duties.

The filing also addressed the conduct of the two former Apple employees named in the lawsuit. According to Chang Liu, any post-departure access to Apple documents was carried out to assist former colleagues in finding files or responding to questions about Apple work, and he said Apple employees had reached out to him for help after he had already left the company. Tang Tan, a 24-year Apple veteran who now leads hardware at OpenAI, stated in the filing that he gave back all Apple prototypes prior to his exit and kept nothing that qualified as confidential, pointing to an employee departure checklist as an example of what he held onto.

OpenAI further contended that the lawsuit is an attempt by Apple to hamper a rival and make employees think twice before leaving, invoking California's longstanding protections for workers who choose to join competing firms.

The filing came on the same day Apple submitted its own court brief. As detailed in earlier coverage, Apple alleged that Chang Liu had incorporated a proprietary Apple circuit schematic into his work at OpenAI and that he directed a colleague to destroy evidence after learning he was under investigation. Apple's brief centered on a forensic analysis of an Apple-issued MacBook that OpenAI provided only after weeks of delay, according to Apple. Apple has maintained that Chang Liu's post-departure access to its files resulted from his exploitation of an authentication vulnerability, while OpenAI has countered that Apple's own inadequate procedures for revoking system access were to blame.

Apple sued OpenAI in July, accusing it, io Products — its hardware-focused subsidiary — and the two former employees of misappropriating trade secrets related to hardware design, manufacturing, and supply-chain operations. More than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, according to court filings. A judge is scheduled to hear arguments on Apple's injunction motion on Oct. 1.

The legal clash underscored how sharply relations between the two companies have soured since their earlier collaboration to bring ChatGPT into Siri — an arrangement that ultimately fell apart after Apple announced plans to rebuild Siri around Google Gemini.