Apple accused OpenAI of trade-secret theft in a 41-page federal complaint filed July 10, 2026 — and the second name on it is io Products, the hardware studio OpenAI bought for roughly $6.5 billion from Jony Ive, Apple's own design chief for nearly three decades. The complaint says the theft happened "at every level, from members of its Technical Staff to its Chief Hardware Officer."
What the complaint actually accuses OpenAI of doing
The lawsuit's spine is two people. Tang Yew Tan spent 24 years at Apple, rising to VP of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch, before becoming OpenAI's Chief Hardware Officer. Chang Liu is a former iPhone engineer who joined OpenAI in January 2026; Apple's complaint alleges he accessed confidential Apple hardware files after finding an authentication bug in an internal system — not through a leaked password, but through a hole in Apple's own security. OpenAI acquired Ive's studio, io Products, in May 2025 for around $6.5 billion, its largest acquisition to date, specifically to build consumer hardware. That team is the same one now working on OpenAI's donut-shaped AI speaker, the one with mechanical moving parts and an onboard camera that's targeting a 2027 launch.
At every level, from members of its Technical Staff to its Chief Hardware Officer, and in coordination with business partners, OpenAI has been stealing Apple's trade secrets and confidential information.
Apple's complaint, filed July 10, 2026
Why Jony Ive's name is missing from the lawsuit
Ive co-founded io Products and sold it to OpenAI, yet he isn't listed as a defendant — only the company is. MacRumors reported this looks like a deliberate omission by Apple's legal team, and it's an odd thing to leave out if the goal were maximum pressure.
How we got here
May 2025
OpenAI acquires io Products, Jony Ive's hardware startup, in an all-stock deal reported at roughly $6.5 billion — OpenAI's largest acquisition to date.
January 2026
Chang Liu, a former Apple iPhone engineer, joins OpenAI's hardware team.
Early-to-mid 2026
Apple alleges Liu accessed confidential Apple hardware files after discovering an authentication bug in an internal Apple system.
July 10, 2026
Apple files a 41-page trade-secret complaint naming OpenAI and io Products, but not Ive personally.
August 7, 2026
OpenAI files a motion asking the court to dismiss the case.
Apple filed the case in federal court in the Northern District of California, its home turf. · Unsplash
Could this actually delay the speaker?
Honestly, probably not on its own. Lawsuits like this rarely freeze product development outright — they mostly slow hiring and force internal documents into discovery, which is its own kind of risk if you're trying to keep a 2027 hardware launch under wraps. If Apple eventually wins a narrow injunction against Tan or Liu specifically, that's the version of this case that could genuinely knock OpenAI's hardware timeline off course. A company-wide loss is a bigger, slower story than that. This is a prediction, not a report of what happens next — nobody outside the courtroom knows yet.
Did Apple sue Jony Ive personally?
No. The named defendants are OpenAI and io Products, the hardware studio Ive co-founded and later sold to OpenAI. Ive is not listed as an individual defendant, which several outlets read as a deliberate decision by Apple's legal team.
What is io Products?
io Products was Jony Ive's post-Apple hardware design startup. OpenAI acquired it in May 2025 for roughly $6.5 billion — the largest acquisition in OpenAI's history — to build its own consumer devices, including the rumored ring-shaped AI speaker.
What does Apple actually allege happened?
The complaint centers on two former Apple employees now at OpenAI: Tang Yew Tan, a 24-year Apple veteran who became OpenAI's Chief Hardware Officer, and Chang Liu, a former iPhone engineer Apple says accessed confidential hardware files after discovering an authentication bug in an internal system.
Has OpenAI responded?
Yes. On August 7, 2026, OpenAI filed a motion asking the court to dismiss Apple's case.
Does this affect OpenAI's upcoming hardware?
Not officially — there's no injunction blocking development as of this writing. But the case puts the exact team building OpenAI's first device under legal scrutiny, and discovery could surface internal details about that device before OpenAI wants them public.
Two dates are worth actually watching here, not the news cycle around the filing itself: whatever a judge rules on OpenAI's August 7 dismissal motion, and whether Apple later asks for an injunction against specific people rather than the whole company. That second move is the one that could genuinely slow a device down instead of just embarrassing everyone named in a 41-page PDF.
