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This weekend a soap opera has exploded that seriously threatens the first Made in OpenAI hardware, leaving an engineer with a long and successful career as an engineer in a bad light. Tan Tang (24 years at Apple and VP of product design for the iPhone or Apple Watch) and calls into question the security of Cupertino: Apple has led to court OpenAI for alleged theft of hardware trade secrets and breach of contract. what’s happening. Apple sums it up harshly in demand40 pages: “one thing is clear: at every level, from members of its technical staff to its director of hardware, and in coordination with business partners, OpenAI has been stealing trade secrets and confidential information from Apple.” Additionally, Apple alleges that former employees, specifically Chang Liu and Tang Tan, continued to access confidential Apple information after moving to OpenAI. Two former Apple employees, in the target. Striking is the case of Liu, a senior electrical systems engineer who, after eight years at Apple, left for OpenAI in January 2026. Apparently, Chang Liu kept his corporate laptop and discovered a flaw that allowed him to access Apple’s internal servers and download a collection of more than a thousand pages of technical files on unannounced technologies, features and products, including technical specifications and engineering presentations. “LOL, I discovered that I have access to the storage network, how fun”, wrote in an email to a former Apple colleague. For his part, Tang Tan, OpenAI’s current hardware director, is accused of using confidential Apple codenames during OpenAI’s hiring process, asking candidates to bring Apple hardware components to their interviews, and advising those abandoning Apple’s ship on how to evade the company’s security procedures. Why is it important. For OpenAI this is a blow that goes straight to its waterline, as it prepares to go public and launch its first device with AI. Sam Altman’s company will have to do and prove much more than the brief statements of its spokesperson, Drew Pusateri: “We are not interested in the trade secrets of other companies. We remain focused on developing innovative technology that empowers people around the world,” as reported by CNBC. For Apple, this lawsuit is an attempt to stop the incessant drain of talent that Cupertino has been suffering for a long year and that it has a fairly common destiny: OpenAI. Apple figures the disbandment of workers in 400 peoplewho would have abandoned the Cupertino ship bound for the company led by Altman. OpenAI has gone from being the company behind the most mainstream artificial intelligence models to becoming a potential direct competitor in hardware with its future first AI gadget. Context. Veteran Tang Tan had spent almost half his life at Apple and it is not an exaggeration: he spent 24 years there, where he became vice president of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch, with an essential role in their supervision. Then, he left and together with another Apple legend like Jony Ive, he founded io Products in 2024. In 2025, OpenAI bought io Products for 6.5 billion dollars in 2025. This is not the first time that OpenAI has found itself in court, which in fact has a few on intellectual property. The most popular is the one that has been pending with The New York Times since 2023, when the American media sued OpenAI and Microsoft for using their articles without permission to train AI models. In detail. In the lawsuit filed it is stated that Apple sent a letter in February to OpenAI to express his concerns, but received no response. Regarding its legal requests, Apple asks the court to prohibit OpenAI from retaining, exploiting or distributing its trade secrets and to force the return of all intellectual property allegedly stolen. As striking as the names and actions of the two former Apple employees are the absences: despite his leading role in the plot, Jony Ive is not accused of anything. What’s going to happen now. Now the trial enters a phase where Apple and OpenAI will have to share evidence, emails and internal documents between them, before a judge decides the case. Meanwhile, Apple is asking for precautionary measures to prevent OpenAI from continuing to use the information, as well as compensation and the return of all the allegedly stolen material. This request from Apple is critical because it could paralyze and even stop the launch of its AI device to redesign components or modify technical specifications or manufacturing processes if it is proven that they are based on Apple’s intellectual property. In Xataka | Apple and OpenAI repeat the bet that sank Humane and Rabbit: screenless wearables in a world addicted to TikTok In Xataka | OpenAI working on its own AI device: although the leaks are not clarified, this is all we know to date