Apple sends legal hold notices to ~40 ex-employees now at OpenAI

苹果与 OpenAI 法律战升级：约 40 名前员工收到苹果律师函

A week after suing OpenAI for trade secret theft, Apple expanded evidence preservation demands to roughly 40 former employees now at OpenAI. The July 10 complaint names Chief Hardware Officer Tang Tan and ex-Apple engineer Chang Liu, alleging a systematic poaching campaign to extract unreleased product details. Apple says Liu exploited an auth loophole to download dozens of confidential files after leaving and texted 'LOL' to a colleague when he realized he still had access. Over 400 ex-Apple staff now work at OpenAI. Apple sent a demand letter in February 2026; OpenAI says it never responded because of a misdirected email. OpenAI denies the claims. The two companies collaborated in 2024 to integrate ChatGPT into iPhone, but OpenAI later acquired Jony Ive's hardware firm for ~$6.5B and Apple replaced ChatGPT with Google Gemini in the new Siri.

Why it matters: A week after suing OpenAI for trade-secret theft, Apple expanded evidence preservation to ~40 former employees now at OpenAI — far more than the initial complaint named. Key figure Tang Tan spent 24 years at Apple leading iPhone and Apple Watch design, now OpenAI's chief hardw...