Apple just filed a lawsuit against the company that powers Siri.
On Thursday, Apple sued OpenAI along with several former Apple employees, accusing them of stealing hardware trade secrets to fuel OpenAI's push into consumer devices. The complaint calls OpenAI's hardware business "rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets."
Which is strange, because Apple and OpenAI are supposed to be partners. Just over two years ago the two announced a deal to bring ChatGPT into iOS, with Sam Altman publicly praising Apple's "commitment to safety and innovation." That partnership still runs today, powering parts of the new Siri AI experience Apple rolled out in June.
The suit centers on a talent pipeline that's gotten hard to ignore. According to the complaint, more than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, including Tang Tan, one of the designers behind AirPods and the iPhone, who left Apple to join io Products, the hardware startup OpenAI bought last year for $6.5 billion.
Apple's argument is that this wasn't ordinary poaching. The complaint includes internal Slack messages between two named defendants, Chang Liu and Yu-Ting "Alyssa" Peng, sent while they were still logged into Apple systems. Liu wrote, "LOL, I found out I can access the [network storage], so funny." Peng replied, "I'm ready." Apple says both then downloaded confidential design files before resigning.
Another moment from the complaint describes a candidate who was asked by an OpenAI recruiter to bring physical hardware components to their interview. The candidate said they "didn't even know we could take those from the office." Business Insider framed the whole filing as Apple skewering OpenAI's recruiting playbook, which is a fair read.
The stakes matter because OpenAI is about to ship. The company is preparing a smart earbud reportedly targeting 40 to 50 million units in year one, along with a companion smart pen, all designed by Jony Ive's team. Apple wants an injunction, damages, and an independent monitor overseeing OpenAI's hardware development, roughly what Waymo secured from Uber back in 2018.
OpenAI's response has been brief. A spokesperson told The Verge the company has "no interest in other companies' trade secrets." That defense might carry more weight than it sounds. In June, a federal judge dismissed a nearly identical suit from xAI against OpenAI, ruling that asking a new hire about their previous work is not, by itself, evidence of theft.
The real question isn't whether OpenAI cut corners. It's whether Apple can keep running the Siri partnership while calling its partner's hardware business rotten in federal court. Somebody at Apple decided that losing hardware IP to OpenAI is now a bigger problem than blowing up the ChatGPT integration users are finally starting to trust. That's a serious bet, and it says Apple sees OpenAI's earbud as enough of a threat to sue over even if it makes the Siri story a lot more awkward. The next time you ask Siri something hard, remember who's answering.
