AI King Accused Of Espionage And Stealing Secrets

Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI. Two former employees of the Californian group, now employed by OpenAI, are also targeted. Apple accuses them of having misappropriated business secrets for the benefit of their new employer.

This Friday July 10, 2026, Apple filed a civil complaint against OpenAI and two of its former employees. The Cupertino giant accuses the two individuals of having misappropriated confidential information for the benefit of the king of AI. In its complaint, Apple asks the American courts to prohibit OpenAI from exploiting any trade secrets originating from its current or past employees.

Who are the employees singled out by Apple?

During their time at Apple, the duo would have collected a wealth of sensitive information, subsequently used by OpenAI to improve its products. The complaint aims in particular Tang Yew Tannow hardware director at OpenAI. The manager is accused of regularly using trade secrets from his former position at Apple to carry out his activities at OpenAI.

The complaint also mentions Chang Liuanother Apple executive who moved to OpenAI. He is accused of having left his post with internal devices under his arm. He allegedly used the devices to connect to Apple’s computer network.

In the complaint, Apple also accuses OpenAI of having encouraged departing employees to bypass internal security proceduresaiming precisely to avoid abuses of this type. The king of AI even reportedly gave valuable advice to employees wishing to resign from Apple on the best way to bypass security procedures. The complaint mentions a ” strategy “ d’OpenAI “to extract confidential information” from Apple.

As a reminder, OpenAI has recruited a huge number of people by drawing from Apple’s ranks in recent years. Last year, more than two dozen former Apple employees packed their bags to join OpenAI. In two years, there are more than 34 managers who have migrated from one tech giant to another. In the complaint, Apple assures that OpenAI employs more than 400 of its former employees.

OpenAI denies

Apple emphasizes that it is essential to protect years of research and development, particularly in the areas of hardware and embedded artificial intelligence. Unsurprisingly, OpenAI strongly denies Apple’s accusations. The company behind ChatGPT indicates that it is not “interested in the confidential information of other firms”.

This complaint is part of an already tense climate between the two companies. Since May 2026, OpenAI is already planning to sue Apple. Sam Altman’s start-up believes that the partnership signed in 2024 to integrate ChatGPT into Siri and across iOS does not keep its promises. Negotiations to review this agreement are no longer moving forward and have become bogged down, especially because Apple is now seeking to integrate other competing artificial intelligences, such as Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude.