Apple Wants to Know What’s Hiding in OpenAI’s Secret Unreleased Device, and Who at the Company Had Access to It.

Apple Wants to Know What’s Hiding in OpenAI’s Secret Unreleased Device, and Who at the Company Had Access to It.

AJ Tiarsmith

Mon, September 14, 2026 at 7:52 PM GMT+3 4 min read

• AAPL +0.71%

Quick Read

• AAPL, up 46% over the past year with a $4.89 trillion market cap, filed for accelerated court discovery into OpenAI's unreleased consumer device.

• Tim Cook called on-device AI inference a 'competitive weapon,' backed by $11.73 billion in quarterly R&D and $54.3 billion in iPhone revenue.

• OpenAI faces operating losses, executive departures, compute costs, and a delayed IPO, making it the financial underdog in a courtroom fight against the world's most valuable company.

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The most valuable company in the world walked into a federal courtroom on Monday and asked a judge for the keys to its rival's laboratory. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is seeking accelerated discovery into OpenAI's internal communications, devices, accounts, and employees ahead of an October 1 injunction hearing, with Judge Edward Davila now positioned to decide how deep Apple gets to dig before trial.

The ask is narrow and specific. Apple wants evidence of where allegedly confidential material went at OpenAI, who accessed it, what systems it touched, and whether any of it reached OpenAI's new hardware device. As CNBC laid out the case, Apple's hard problem is proving OpenAI actually used the confidential information a former employee walked out with, and that the use showed up inside the unreleased consumer gadget OpenAI is building.

Front-Run Question Looms Over Apple's Watch Launch

Then comes the twist from the same CNBC segment. Reporter Mackenzie Sigalos said there have been "certain conversations about whether Apple was almost looking to front run a product like this from OpenAI with this new audio intelligence feature that pairs with the new Apple Watch that's coming out this fall." Apple unveiled that Watch, alongside a $1,999 foldable iPhone Duo, on September 9, five days before its lawyers stood in front of Davila.

Apple has not confirmed any such intent, and Sigalos framed it as an open question.

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Why Apple Cares So Much About One Device

Apple's own AI positioning has now been rebuilt around hardware. At the July call, CEO Tim Cook described the newly rolled out Siri AI as "a completely reimagined version of Siri that is profoundly capable, deeply personal, and integrated seamlessly across our platforms." He added that on-device inference is "also very strategic and sort of a competitive weapon, if you will."

An analyst pressed incoming CEO John Ternus on exactly the OpenAI hardware threat. Ternus stayed on script:

"There is so much opportunity for us with everything that's happening in this space and we're really focused on our plans and very excited about it."

Behind that answer sits $11.73 billion of quarterly R&D and a hardware franchise that just posted $54.3 billion of iPhone revenue in a single June quarter.

Financial Asymmetry Between Apple and OpenAI

AAPL trades at $334.58, up 45.99% over the past year and up 10.7% in a month, sitting on a market cap near $4.89 trillion. On the other side of the caption, Sigalos described OpenAI as simultaneously managing a compute crunch, capex-heavy investments in custom AI chips, consumer hardware development, executive departures, Q2 operating losses, and a growing number of lawsuits, with its IPO pushed into next year.

What to watch: any ruling from Davila on discovery scope, and whether Apple's list of names inside OpenAI gets any shorter before October 1.

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