OpenAI Says an Employee Who Quit for Apple Took Files on an Unreleased Device

By Hamza Faisal

The trade-secret war between Apple and OpenAI has taken a dramatic turn — and this time, OpenAI is on the attack. In a new court filing, OpenAI alleged that an employee who left the ChatGPT maker for Apple sent more than 100 files about an unreleased product to a personal account, then presented the product to senior Apple leadership.

The filing, submitted to the US federal court in San Jose, California on Tuesday, claims the presentation happened months ago — and that Apple is now making AI products of its own, pointing to this week's release of Apple's HomeView smart-home device as evidence.

"OpenAI is very concerned that its trade secret and confidential information is now circulating inside Apple, where Apple engineers can shape Apple's upcoming products based on OpenAI's confidential and innovative work," the company said in the filing, first reported by Reuters.

A hundred files on OpenAI's secret hardware

According to the filing, the employee had an unusual round trip: he joined OpenAI from Apple, worked at the ChatGPT maker for just six months, and then returned to Apple. The files sent to his personal accounts on June 2, 2026 — his final day at OpenAI — reportedly included detailed images of at least one unreleased OpenAI device, highly confidential engineering and manufacturing data, supplier information, project files, standards for cosmetic finishes, and reports on the coating and sealing of hardware components.

OpenAI further alleged that the employee gave a presentation about its plans to Apple's senior leadership, including the company's vice president of operations in Asia. "That presentation appears to have happened months ago — and now, armed with that information, Apple is making a new push into AI-enabled products," OpenAI wrote.

Apple pushes back

Apple denied wrongdoing. The company said it has policies and procedures in place to ensure new employees do not use confidential information from previous employers, and that it has found no evidence to support OpenAI's allegations.

In an October 12 letter to OpenAI, made public in another court filing, Apple's lawyers argued that the two personal phone numbers OpenAI identified as recipients of the files do not match the number the employee uses for his Apple work — so it appeared Apple never had "possession, custody or control" of the data while he was still at OpenAI.

A war now fought in both directions

The filing is part of an ongoing trade-secret dispute that Apple started earlier this year, when it accused its own departing employees of taking confidential information to OpenAI's hardware division — allegations OpenAI has denied. Apple filed its original lawsuit in July, and in August said it had found "shocking evidence" in a forensic analysis of a former engineer's laptop.

A judge has been moving the case quickly. US District Judge Edward Davila granted part of Apple's request for early access to digital files, allowing the company to gather data from some former employees' devices and depose three of them on an accelerated schedule — including defendants Chang Liu, a former senior system electrical engineer, and Tang Yew Tan, a former vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch.

The dueling allegations underscore an intensifying battle over talent and intellectual property as OpenAI pushes into consumer hardware — a market Apple has dominated for years.

By Hamza Faisal — following the courtroom fight between AI's biggest names.