OpenAI answers Apple's trade-secret suit with the chat logs

Apple alleges systematic theft through a former engineer; OpenAI published messages showing Apple staff kept contacting him after he left.

Apple has sued OpenAI in California federal court, alleging systematic theft of trade secrets. The complaint centres on Chang Liu, an engineer whose last day at Apple was 22 January 2026 and who then joined OpenAI, and it further alleges OpenAI encouraged departing employees to take files and specifications during their notice periods.

OpenAI responded publicly on 4 August with a blog post and a set of chat messages. Those messages show Apple employees repeatedly contacting Liu after he left, asking for technical help and for assistance locating internal files; on 5 March he was added to a group chat with several Apple staff and removed himself, saying the thread was irregular. OpenAI characterised Apple's approach as aggressive and careless. Apple has separately asked a judge for a preliminary injunction barring two former staff and OpenAI from accessing confidential information. More than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI.

Litigation between two large companies over who may hire whom is a friction item, but a small one: it constrains labour mobility at the top of the industry without changing what anything costs or who can use it. It is scored at the floor. Nothing has been decided by a court.

Source: The Decoder