Apple has intensified its high-stakes legal fight against OpenAI by sending formal preservation letters to approximately 40 former employees who now work at the AI company, according to reports from the Financial Times and corroborated by tech outlets.
The move comes just one week after Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI (and its hardware-focused entity, io Products), along with two named former Apple executives: Tang Tan (OpenAI’s Chief Hardware Officer) and Chang Liu (a senior hardware team member). In the complaint, Apple accuses OpenAI of orchestrating a coordinated effort to poach talent and misappropriate confidential information related to hardware engineering, product development, manufacturing processes, and other proprietary designs.
Preservation Letters: What They Mean
These letters are not lawsuits themselves, but formal legal notices requiring recipients to preserve all potentially relevant documents, communications, emails, files, and other evidence. They serve as an early step in litigation to prevent the destruction or alteration of materials that could be critical to the case. Apple appears to believe the alleged misconduct extends beyond the individuals explicitly named in the original filing, viewing the evidence uncovered so far as potentially just the “tip of the iceberg.”
Apple’s lawsuit highlights that more than 400 former Apple employees have joined OpenAI. While hiring talent from competitors is common in Silicon Valley (especially in California, where non-compete agreements are limited), Apple alleges specific breaches involving the theft of trade secrets, violation of employment contracts, and improper use of proprietary information to accelerate OpenAI’s hardware ambitions, particularly its reported AI device development.
Background on the Dispute
• Key Defendants: OpenAI, io Products, Tang Tan (24-year Apple veteran who led product design), and Chang Liu (former senior system electrical engineer).
• Apple’s Demands: An injunction to stop OpenAI from using any Apple-derived information, plus monetary damages.
• OpenAI’s Response: The company has denied the allegations, stating it is “not aware of any evidence that this complaint has merit.”
The escalation underscores growing tensions between the two tech giants. Apple, a leader in consumer hardware, is protective of its tightly controlled supply chain and engineering secrets, while OpenAI is pushing aggressively into hardware to leverage its chatbot.
This development is likely to fuel further scrutiny of talent poaching in the AI sector, where companies compete fiercely for top engineers. Legal experts note that preservation letters are standard in complex intellectual property cases and signal Apple’s intention to build a broader case through discovery.
As the lawsuit progresses, both sides will be watching closely, especially as OpenAI continues its hardware timeline reportedly unchanged despite the legal pressure. The case could set important precedents regarding employee mobility, trade secret protection, and the blurry lines between accumulated expertise and stolen proprietary information in the fast-moving tech industry.
MacDailyNews Take: OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, the AI for newbies who don’t know better alternatives exist, seems to be filled with traitors.
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Wonder if Apple has ever hired similar talent from other companies?
Yes of course they have and hiring of a few (but key) engineers from another company did not help Apple’s case when Masimo claimed trade secret theft of pulse oximetry (blood oxygen) technology. Apple lost. Details in the OpenAI case will emerge, but given the large number of former employees moved and apparently accessing Apple servers after they left, it is hard to see how OPenAI will emerge as not guilty here.
Jony is yearning for the simple days @ AAPL, when all he had to worry about was making things thin.