OpenAI says an employee who left for Apple took files on an unreleased device and presented its plans to Apple's leadersOpenAI says an employee who left for Apple took files on an unreleased device and presented its plans to Apple's leaders

OpenAI has told a federal court that a former employee took files about an unreleased OpenAI device to Apple and presented its plans to Apple's senior leadership.

The claim comes in a new filing in Apple Inc. v. Liu, the trade secrets lawsuit Apple brought against OpenAI, io Products and two former Apple engineers in July, in the Northern District of California. 9to5Mac, which published the filing, says it was made on 14 October, the day Judge Edward Davila was due to hear Apple's request for a preliminary injunction and OpenAI's motion to dismiss the case in San Jose. Reuters dated the filing a day earlier. The document is listed as number 176 on the docket.

What does OpenAI say the employee took?

The employee is not named. According to 9to5Mac's account of the filing, he joined OpenAI from Apple, stayed about six months, and went back to Apple. OpenAI says that on 2 June 2026, his last day, he sent more than 100 files about at least one unreleased OpenAI device to his personal accounts.

OpenAI describes the files as including:

• Detailed images of the device
• Engineering and manufacturing data, and supplier information
• Project files
• Standards for the device's cosmetic finish
• Reports on how hardware components are coated and sealed

OpenAI says he later gave a presentation on its plans to senior Apple leaders, among them Apple's vice president of operations in Asia, who is identified only by title, and that this appears to have happened months ago. It says it raised the matter with Apple directly and did not get the assurance it asked for that Apple neither holds nor uses its information. Reuters reports that OpenAI pointed to HomeView, launched by Apple this week, as evidence that Apple now builds AI products of its own, and that OpenAI is worried its information is "now circulating inside Apple". None of the reports names the OpenAI device.

What has Apple said?

Apple told Reuters that it has policies and procedures to make sure new employees do not use confidential information from previous employers, and that it has found no evidence supporting OpenAI's allegations. No ruling from the 14 October hearing had been reported at the time of writing.

Our take

Until now this case has run one way. Apple says engineers carried its secrets to OpenAI, and we reported Apple's complaint that Chang Liu wiped his iMac before handing it back. OpenAI's answer has been that Apple was describing ordinary job interviews, and that it never identified a specific secret, only broad categories. Today's filing turns the same accusation round: a departing engineer, personal accounts, a last-day transfer, and a list of what was taken.

That list is the interesting part. Cosmetic finishes, coatings and sealing are exactly the kind of manufacturing knowledge Apple says it lost, and only a day earlier the judge kept OpenAI's own research on metal finishes out of early discovery. OpenAI has now described that kind of work in a public filing of its own, which is a striking choice for a company that has been guarding it.

What APPDOOK cannot tell from the reporting is what OpenAI wants the court to do. A notice in Apple's lawsuit is not a counterclaim, and none of the coverage describes a request for an order. Read as it stands, it is leverage: filed around the injunction hearing, it tells the judge that if Apple wants OpenAI restrained, the same logic could apply to Apple. The HomeView point is weaker. HomeView, a $299 smart display, was announced only four months after the files left, which is late in the life of a hardware product, and nothing in the reporting links it to OpenAI's files.

For people who use Apple products, nothing changes yet. The questions that matter are whether OpenAI names the employee or seeks discovery from Apple, and how Judge Davila rules on the injunction. Both companies still share ChatGPT in Apple Intelligence, which makes a dispute that now runs both ways harder to settle quietly.