OpenAI Fires Back at Apple in Trade Secrets Fight: Ex-Employee Took 100+ Confidential Files and Pitched Them to Apple Leadership

The trade secrets fight between OpenAI and Apple has a new front. In a court filing on Wednesday, first reported by Reuters, OpenAI alleges that a former employee took more than 100 confidential files related to its product plans before leaving to join Apple — and then presented that material to Apple leadership.

According to the filing, the unnamed employee sent the files to a personal account before departing, and the material was later shown to Apple executives, including the vice president of the company's operations in Asia. OpenAI says the trove contains images of at least one unreleased device, supplier information, engineering data, project files, standards for cosmetic finishes, and reports on the coating and sealing of hardware components.

The most pointed allegation connects old documents to new products. OpenAI claims the presentation happened months ago, and that Apple — now armed with that information — is making a fresh push into AI-enabled hardware, pointing to the HomeView smart display and the range of other devices Apple revealed this week as the apparent outcome.

Apple tells the story in reverse. The company accuses OpenAI of stealing confidential documents and spying on hardware prototypes to help build its own products. Both companies, in other words, now claim the other one is the thief — a symmetry that will make this case considerably harder to settle quietly.

The filing escalates a dispute that already moved fast this week. A judge separately ordered OpenAI to turn over hiring records and granted Apple expedited discovery, shortening timelines for evidence exchange to days rather than months. Each side is now seeking leverage through procedure while building the public record through increasingly specific allegations.

What makes the case unusual is the direction of talent flow it scrutinizes. AI labs hiring hardware engineers — and hardware giants hiring AI researchers — has been normal for years. This filing argues that the resumes were not the only things that moved. If OpenAI can substantiate that its unreleased device data shaped an Apple product launch, the damages calculus changes; if Apple's counterclaims about prototype spying hold up, so does its own.

For the broader industry, the case is shaping up as a test of how trade secret law applies when a software company starts building devices and a device company starts building AI. Neither side has won anything yet — these are allegations in dueling filings, not findings. But the discovery process ahead will force both companies to open internal records that neither ever expected a courtroom to see.