Apple has taken OpenAI to court, claiming the company used departing employees as a pipeline for confidential AI hardware plans.
Apple's lawsuit alleges OpenAI ran a coordinated campaign to steal trade secrets tied to next-generation AI hardware development. The alleged scheme involved former Apple employees who, after leaving the company, passed confidential product information to OpenAI. Both companies are competing to build dedicated AI chips and hardware ecosystems. The legal fight lands inside one of the most expensive technology races in the industry.
AI hardware has become the chokepoint in the race between the largest tech companies — whoever controls their own silicon controls costs, latency, and product roadmap. A successful suit could expose how aggressively OpenAI has been pulling from Apple's secretive hardware teams and how far it's willing to go to close the gap on purpose-built AI infrastructure. Either way, the lawsuit signals that Apple is treating its chip roadmap as a competitive weapon, not just a product line.
"Orchestrated campaign" is Apple's characterization — the credibility of that framing will depend on what surfaces in discovery.