Apple Sues OpenAI Over Alleged Hardware Secret Theft

Apple went to court Friday with a lawsuit charging that OpenAI ran a coordinated effort to obtain the iPhone maker's confidential hardware information. According to the complaint, OpenAI used job interviews and employees it recruited away from Apple as channels for gathering proprietary material. The suit takes aim at OpenAI's hardware venture, valued at $6.5 billion, and requests an injunction.

Apple's filing alleges that workers who left for OpenAI were urged to carry sensitive material with them, including internal presentations, unreleased prototypes and information about important suppliers, according to Wired. The company contends the effort was not the work of a few individuals but operated "at every level" of the organization, and that senior OpenAI leadership directed it. Among those leaders, Apple says, is a person who spent many years working at Apple, TechCrunch reported.

The complaint uses pointed language about the business Apple is trying to stop, describing OpenAI's young hardware operation as rotten at its core, per BBC reporting. The filing marks a public break between two companies that until now had presented themselves as collaborators.

The context

The dispute follows a period of close cooperation between the two companies. In 2024, Apple and OpenAI announced a widely publicized agreement that built ChatGPT into the iPhone's operating system, a deal CNBC noted when reporting on the lawsuit. That arrangement put OpenAI's technology in front of iPhone users through Apple's own software.

Since then, OpenAI has been building a hardware business of its own, the venture now valued at $6.5 billion that Apple's suit targets. Apple's complaint frames that operation as having been constructed in part on material taken from inside Apple, brought over by former employees. The filing does not treat the alleged conduct as isolated; Apple says the effort ran throughout the organization and was steered from the top, including by a longtime former Apple employee now in OpenAI's senior ranks.

Why it matters

The case pits two of the technology industry's most prominent companies against each other after a year of public partnership. If Apple wins an injunction, OpenAI's push into devices — a business Apple values at $6.5 billion in its filing — could be slowed or blocked. The lawsuit also raises questions about the ChatGPT integration that reaches iPhone users through the 2024 deal, and about how aggressively AI companies can recruit from established hardware makers. Allegations that leadership directed the conduct raise the stakes beyond a routine employment dispute.

What’s next

The case now moves into court, where a judge will weigh Apple's request for an injunction against OpenAI's hardware venture. Key open questions include how OpenAI responds to the allegations, whether the 2024 ChatGPT integration on iPhones continues during the litigation, and what evidence Apple presents about the role of senior OpenAI leaders. The material does not indicate a hearing schedule or any public response from OpenAI so far described in the filings.