OpenAI alleges that a former employee sent more than 100 confidential files about an unreleased device to personal accounts before joining Apple, then presented information about OpenAI’s product plans to senior Apple leaders.
Apple says it has found no evidence supporting the allegations. According to Reuters reporting, Apple has characterized the accusation as a diversion from its own claims that former employees took confidential Apple information to OpenAI’s hardware business.
The filing, reported on October 14, opens a reciprocal front in an existing trade-secret dispute. It does not establish that Apple received or used OpenAI’s files, or resolve Apple’s allegations against OpenAI. The companies now offer competing accounts of how confidential hardware information may have followed employees between them.
OpenAI’s Allegations Reach Beyond Device Images
According to filing excerpts published by 9to5Mac, the employee previously worked at Apple, spent six months at OpenAI, and then returned to Apple. OpenAI alleges that the transfers occurred on June 2, 2026, the employee’s final day at the company.
The material allegedly concerned at least one unreleased OpenAI device. OpenAI describes a collection containing:
- Detailed device images.
- Engineering and manufacturing data.
- Supplier information and project files.
- Standards for cosmetic finishes.
- Reports about coating and sealing hardware components.
If the files contain what OpenAI describes, they could reveal implementation choices, manufacturing requirements, and supplier relationships alongside the device’s appearance. That explains why OpenAI is treating the alleged transfer as more than a leak of a product concept: an image might disclose what a company intends to build, while engineering and manufacturing documents could disclose aspects of how it intends to build it. The description remains OpenAI’s account of confidential material, however, not an independent assessment of the files.
OpenAI separately alleges that the former employee presented information about its plans to Apple’s senior leadership, including Apple’s vice president of operations in Asia. The company says that presentation appears to have happened months before the filing.
Sending documents to a personal account would not, by itself, demonstrate that they reached Apple’s systems or informed an Apple product. The alleged leadership briefing supplies the claimed connection between the departing employee’s information and people inside Apple. It is related to, but distinct from, the alleged transfer.
