Apple and OpenAI Are Partners on iPhone — and Rivals in Court
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The confrontation between Apple and OpenAI has intensified after the ChatGPT maker asked a U.S. court to dismiss Apple's trade-secret lawsuit, while the iPhone maker seeks urgent restrictions on the use of information it alleges was improperly taken by former employees.
Apple filed the lawsuit on July 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against OpenAI, entities connected to its hardware operations, and former Apple employees Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan. Apple alleges that confidential information involving product development, design, manufacturing and supply-chain strategy was misappropriated to support OpenAI's push into consumer hardware. The allegations have not been proven in court.
OpenAI has rejected Apple's account and asked for the case to be dismissed. It argues that Apple has not sufficiently identified the trade secrets it claims were taken or demonstrated that OpenAI misappropriated them. The company says it neither needs nor wants Apple's confidential information and is developing different technology.
The dispute became more public when OpenAI released messages and emails that it says contradict parts of Apple's account involving former engineer Chang Liu and his access to company information after leaving. OpenAI argues that the communications expose inaccuracies in Apple's allegations, although those claims remain part of its defence rather than findings by the court.
Apple, meanwhile, has asked for a preliminary injunction that would restrict the use or disclosure of information it describes as stolen trade secrets. It is also seeking expedited discovery from OpenAI and the former employees, arguing that continued use of the disputed information in hardware development could cause irreparable harm.
The unusual part of the battle is that Apple and OpenAI remain business partners. Apple began integrating ChatGPT into Siri and its systemwide Writing Tools as part of Apple Intelligence in 2024, and that relationship has not automatically ended because of the lawsuit. The companies can therefore cooperate in software while competing — and fighting in court — over hardware and intellectual property.
The deeper source of tension is OpenAI's expansion from AI models and software into consumer hardware, supported by engineers and designers with extensive Apple experience. That creates the central legal boundary in the case: employees are generally free to take their skills and experience to a new employer, but protected trade secrets cannot lawfully be taken or used if Apple's allegations are ultimately proven.
The case therefore raises a question that extends beyond Apple and OpenAI: when an engineer moves between competing technology companies, where does personal expertise end and a former employer's protected intellectual property begin?
