As Apple Inc sought a preliminary injunction against two former employees and OpenAI from accessing, acquiring, or using “confidential information” related to the company, OpenAI released a statement on Tuesday denying allegations of trade secrets theft.
In a blogpost, OpenAI called Apple’s decision to file a lawsuit “careless” “aggressive” and “oddly personal”
“Apple’s request for a preliminary injunction is both based on false information and completely unnecessary because we do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets. We’re much more interested in building innovative products and technologies that push the frontier,” read a statement from OpenAI.
The lawsuit involves two former employees Tang Tan and Chang Liu of Apple who had quit the company and joined OpenAI. In July 2026, Apple sued OpenAI and the two former employees, alleging misappropriation of its trade secrets and accused OpenAI of orchestrating a scheme to systematically acquire Apple’s hardware related confidential information from its employees.
The lawsuit filed by Apple last month alleged that OpenAI specifically targeted Apple workers and encouraged them to bypass security systems to steal confidential hardware information, components and drawings
The lawsuit also alleged that OpenAI encouraged job candidates during interviews to bring physical Apple prototypes, disclose proprietary manufacturing processes and provide access to Apple’s closely guarded supplier network. The company pointed out in its lawsuit that all these stolen materials were used to start OpenAI’s own secret consumer hardware projects.
In the blog post, the OpenAI called Apple “one of the greatest companies of all time” and said that “this careless, aggressive and oddly personal lawsuit doesn’t live up to the company’s reputation.” It said Apple had claimed it contacted OpenAI in February and received no response, but later admitted its outside lawyers emailed the wrong person after confusing surnames of two OpenAI employees.
The lawsuit explicitly names Chang Liu, a former iPhone hardware engineer and Tang Tan, currently a chief hardware officer at OpenAI. The AI company also refuted claims about Liu accessing Apple confidential information after leaving the company. It has also shared internal messages which showed Apple employees asking Liu for help locating and transferring files after his last day in January.
The AI startup has claimed that Apple was now trying to blame “residual access”, while not disclosing that former employees could still have access to Apple files as the company had failed to manage system access when employees leave.
Meanwhile, OpenAI said that Tang Tan has been accused of trying to obtain and use trade secrets. “Tang has always been clear with the team that we do not want, and must not use, any confidential information from other companies. He has served Apple for more than 24 years and was widely known as one of the most innovative leaders at the company,” the company clarified.
The Sam Altman led startup highlighted that Apple also wrongly claimed there had been a discussion with its general counsel. In internal emails shared in the post by OpenAI, its general counsel Che Chang told Apple’s in-house lawyers that its external counsel Gabriel Gross was “lying about speaking with me on the phone.”
Also Read: Apple to Pay $250 Million to Settle iPhone AI Lawsuit
