Apple Sues OpenAI and io Products Over Trade Secret Theft — Tang Tan and Chang Liu Named
Apple filed a trade secret theft lawsuit against OpenAI and io Products on July 10, 2026, naming two former employees as the primary defendants: Tang Tan, who led iPhone and Apple Watch product design as VP before departing in February 2024, and Chang Liu, a senior system electrical engineer who left Apple in January 2026 to join OpenAI.
“This case is about Apple’s former employees stealing Apple’s trade secrets for the benefit of OpenAI,” the complaint states. “Apple brings this suit to put a stop to it.”
Why io Products Is a Defendant
OpenAI acquired io, the hardware startup co-founded by Jony Ive, in a $6.5 billion deal in May 2025. Tang Tan is named in the filing as having been directed to take Apple’s confidential materials — the complaint alleges he steered the misconduct. Evans Hankey, who ran Apple’s design team for several years after Ive’s departure before joining io, and Scott Cannon are not named in the initial filing. Ive himself is not personally named.
The naming of io Products alongside OpenAI makes the lawsuit directly relevant to OpenAI’s hardware programme, which Ive is leading. The stolen material is alleged to concern “unreleased technologies, processes, and products.”
Apple Says OpenAI Ignored It for Months
Apple first raised concerns with OpenAI directly in February 2026, asking the company to investigate and remediate. OpenAI did not respond. The lawsuit describes the conduct detailed in the filing as “the tip of the iceberg,” adding that Apple lacks visibility into what has been happening inside OpenAI, “where such misconduct is normalized and exemplified by leadership.”
An Apple spokesperson said the company discovered “significant evidence suggesting individuals employed by OpenAI wrongfully took Apple’s secret and confidential information regarding our unreleased technologies, processes, and products.”
Context: The Fracture Was Already Visible
The Apple-OpenAI partnership — built around ChatGPT integration in iOS — has been deteriorating for months. OpenAI has been exploring legal counterclaims of its own in separate disputes over the partnership. This suit represents Apple moving first and filing offensively, targeting OpenAI’s hardware unit specifically, not its software relationship with iOS.
Tang Tan was one of Apple’s most senior hardware product executives. His post-Apple trajectory went from working with Jony Ive at io to being folded into OpenAI when OpenAI absorbed io. The allegation that he directed the transfer of Apple trade secrets to OpenAI puts Apple’s product roadmap — likely including future iPhone, Watch, and wearables — at the center of an active federal complaint.
OpenAI has not yet issued a formal public response beyond the update linked from 9to5Mac’s original filing coverage.