In a new filing, OpenAI claims that it too was victimized by confidential information theft, and implies that Apple's HomeView was somehow influenced by that theft.
Without much detail, OpenAI says that during the forensic investigation that is required by Apple's trade secret theft lawsuit, it discovered trade theft by Apple. In a filing on Wednesday, the company vaguely says that the thief joined OpenAI from Apple, worked at OpenAI for six months, then returned to Apple.
When the alleged thief returned to Apple, they brought with them details of one OpenAI hardware device stashed away in personal accounts. Furthermore, the documents include specific images, engineering info, supplier information, manufacturing data, and standards for cosmetic finishes and sealants.
In short, OpenAI is accusing this employee, who returned to work at Apple in June 2026, of the same thing that Apple alleges. And, in the filing, OpenAI is drawing a spurious and strange parallel to the HomeView, which has been in development for at least three years that we are aware of.
"That presentation appears to have happened months ago," The filing says. "Armed with that information, Apple is making a new push into AI-enabled products."
OpenAI claims that the employee made presentations about product plans to Apple's vice president of operations in Asia. The company also says that it has raised this issue with Apple.
Apple reportedly never responded. However, it has denied that the theft or briefing happened, and says there is no evidence surrounding the incident that the company holds.
In a statement to Reuters on Wednesday, Apple says that it has "policies and procedures in place to ensure new employees do not use confidential information" from OpenAI, or any other company.
We could not identify the alleged thief. The filing does not say who it is, which in itself is unusual.
Apple alleges that its former employees, Tang Yew Tan and Chang Liu, stole the company's trade secrets through iCloud exploits. They then used that information to benefit OpenAI in an attempt to benefit OpenAI.
According to Apple, the two stole information by continuing to use work-issued devices and services after leaving the company. The two allegedly also abused bugs, emailed themselves supplier information, and instructed Apple employees interviewing with OpenAI to bring unreleased Apple hardware with them.
As a result, Apple filed a lawsuit against its former employees and against OpenAI in July 2026.
Naturally, OpenAI denied the accusations, and said that they had procedures to prevent this kind of thing, and to stop leaks like they are alleging as well.
There has been a considerable amount of legal drama in the last five months, and there will be much more going forward up to and including the trial, which has not been scheduled yet. However, on Tuesday, Judge Edward Davila partly granted Apple's requests for relevant OpenAI information about the employees in question.
