Stolen laptops, data breaches, secret moles, and recruiting-as-espionage. Here are the wildest claims in Apple’s lawsuit against OpenAI

The 41-page lawsuit Apple filed against OpenAI for allegedly stealing trade secrets is a good read. Unless you’re OpenAI, that is. The suit alleges nothing short of a wide-scale corporate espionage campaign carried out by ex-Apple employees who joined OpenAI, according to the filing.

The case centers on two lesser-known OpenAI employees: Tang Yew Tan and Chang Liu. Apple alleges Tan and Liu engaged in “a pattern of theft” of its trade secrets, which are some of the “most valuable intellectual assets in all of American business.” Apple is suing them for two things: “Breach of Intellectual Property Agreement” and “Misappropriation of Trade Secrets in Violation of the Defend Trade Secrets Act.”

The most famous ex-Apple employee now at OpenAI, Jony Ive, is not named in the case, though his involvement is implied as the co-founder of io, an AI hardware startup OpenAI purchased in 2025 and that Apple is now suing as part of the case. Apple is also suing OpenAI as a whole.

OpenAI tells Fortune it has “no interest in other companies’ trade secrets,” and that it is still reviewing the lawsuit, so we don’t yet have its side of the story. “We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere,” OpenAI said.

Op...