Apple and OpenAI's relationship has moved from ChatGPT inside the iPhone to a hardware fight in court.
On August 3, OpenAI published a public response titled Apple is getting this wrong. Around the same time, Apple asked a U.S. judge for a preliminary injunction barring OpenAI, two former Apple employees and related parties from accessing, acquiring, using or disclosing alleged confidential information.
The case now centers on two former Apple employees
Apple's motion seeks depositions from Chang Liu, Tang Yew Tan, OpenAI employee Yu-Ting Peng and another unnamed former Apple employee now at OpenAI. Liu was a senior systems electrical engineer at Apple. Tan worked on iPhone and Apple Watch product design before becoming OpenAI's chief hardware officer.
OpenAI's response focuses on two claims: that Apple's outside lawyers emailed the wrong person in February after confusing two Asian surnames, and that Apple has conceded a claimed discussion with OpenAI's general counsel did not happen.
"This careless, aggressive and oddly personal lawsuit sadly doesn't live up to that reputation."
Residual access is the fault line
OpenAI says Liu left Apple on January 22, 2026, and that Apple employees later asked him to help locate files. Apple alleges Liu failed to return a company computer, used an authentication weakness to access cloud storage after leaving, and downloaded confidential files.
The verified public nodes are narrower than the rhetoric: Liu's January 22 departure, the February contact dispute, a five-month gap before suit, Apple's August 3 injunction request, and OpenAI's public response. Discovery will decide whether any information was taken, used, or useful to OpenAI's hardware work.
The real issue is AI hardware
OpenAI is no longer just an app and API company. Its acquisition of io Products and hiring of former Apple hardware talent puts it close to Apple's strongest territory. The legal question is not whether employees may change jobs, but whether files, supply-chain knowledge and unreleased designs crossed the line.
The next test is the injunction. If Apple wins early restrictions, OpenAI's hardware team could face isolation rules or tighter internal review before the case reaches the merits. If not, Apple can still sue, but its immediate leverage over OpenAI's product timeline will be weaker.
Sources: OpenAI official response, CLS, CocoLoop, The Verge, Reuters; sources verify Apple's preliminary-injunction request, Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan role descriptions, departure message records, contact dispute, litigation gap and OpenAI's public response.