SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 31 - OpenAI rejected Apple’s trade-secret accusations on Monday, arguing in a federal filing that Apple has not produced evidence showing confidential information was taken by former employees now working for the AI lab.
In a filing made late Monday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, OpenAI wrote: "This dispute is a mess of Apple’s own making, and it is trying to blame everyone else." The response came after Apple sued OpenAI and two former Apple engineers, Tang Tan and Chang Liu, in July, alleging misappropriation of trade secrets related to hardware design, manufacturing and supply-chain operations.
OpenAI, led by CEO Sam Altman, framed the lawsuit as an attempt by Apple to slow a potential competitor and to deter employee departures. Court papers from both sides note that OpenAI has hired roughly 400 employees from Apple for its hardware initiative. OpenAI emphasized that under California law employees are free to move between competing employers.
Statements from former employees
In the filing, Chang Liu said that any access to Apple files after leaving the company was intended to assist former colleagues in locating documents or answering questions related to Apple work, asserting that Apple employees repeatedly contacted him for help following his departure.
Tang Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple according to the filing, said he returned Apple prototypes before leaving and retained only non-confidential items. Tan specifically noted he kept an employee departure checklist that he said was not confidential.
OpenAI’s arguments on company policies
OpenAI's filing criticized Apple’s internal practices, saying the company encourages employees to use personal iCloud accounts to access work documents, which OpenAI argues makes it difficult for departing employees to clearly separate personal content from company material. OpenAI also faulted Apple’s practice of immediately escorting departing employees from its premises, saying the policy does not allow enough time for employees to return corporate devices, transfer internal files back to Apple, or hand over responsibilities.
OpenAI also defended the right of employees to leave. The filing stated that employees can move from a company that has struggled to adopt AI to "an exciting startup that builds innovative products," adding: "Apple may not like those choices. But it cannot claim those choices are unlawful, and it cannot use its own sloppy procedures to blame others for its own mess."
Legal context and strained relations
The lawsuit marks a significant escalation between the two companies. The filing notes that just two years prior the companies entered into a partnership aimed at expanding ChatGPT’s reach and helping Apple develop stronger AI capabilities. The two-year-old partnership, according to court filings, has since deteriorated as competition in AI has intensified.
In its original complaint, Apple alleged that OpenAI’s recruitment of Apple personnel was part of a strategy to learn a competitor’s confidential information, and Apple claimed Tan and Liu accessed internal Apple files after leaving the company. OpenAI disputes that assertion and maintains the evidence does not show confidential materials were misappropriated.
What to watch next
The dispute will proceed through the San Jose federal court system, where the competing characterizations of employee mobility, company device and cloud access policies, and the content of any accessed files will be examined. The filing by OpenAI frames the case as a conflict driven by Apple’s internal handling of departures and by broader competitive tensions as both firms pursue hardware and AI initiatives.