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Apple broadens OpenAI fight as hardware ambitions grow
Apple has sent legal letters to about 40 former employees now at OpenAI as a trade-secrets case expands into the race for AI devices.
Image: ITzine
Apple is escalating its trade-secrets dispute with OpenAI just as the company pushes deeper into hardware. According to the Financial Times, Apple sent legal letters to about 40 former employees who now work at OpenAI, asking them to preserve documents and messages and to meet with Apple’s lawyers.
The move follows a lawsuit Apple filed last week in federal court in California, accusing OpenAI and two former Apple employees of using confidential information tied to manufacturing processes and unreleased products. In the complaint, Apple alleges that Tan Tan, now OpenAI’s Chief Hardware Officer and formerly at Apple, encouraged candidates to bring “real details” from Cupertino to job interviews. The case also names Chang Liu, a former senior Apple electrical systems engineer, who Apple claims left with a laptop and downloaded dozens of confidential files.
OpenAI told Reuters it is not interested in competitors' secrets. Sam Altman also wrote on X that he is not “afraid” of Apple. Elon Musk joined the public clash as well, calling Altman a fraud.
Why the dispute has shifted to hardware
This is no longer just a software rivalry. OpenAI is trying to move beyond models and into devices, putting it in more direct competition with Apple, Google, and Amazon in consumer electronics.
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That makes Apple’s hiring concerns more sensitive. The company appears to view these hires not as routine recruitment, but as a potential transfer of knowledge from one of Silicon Valley’s most secretive hardware development operations.
The relationship between the two companies was already strained. In 2024, Apple signed a deal to bring ChatGPT to its devices. This year, it also began shifting Siri toward Google’s Gemini models. Meanwhile, OpenAI acquired io Products, the hardware startup founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, for $6.5 billion. Apple included io Products in its lawsuit as well.
What OpenAI is reportedly building
According to Bloomberg, OpenAI and io Products are working on a screenless smart speaker that can move around the home, play music, control appliances, answer questions, and perform tasks through ChatGPT. It has been described as a “humanoid” AI companion designed to go beyond a standard smart speaker.
Reported features include:
- no screen
- smart home control
- music and media playback
- answers and actions through ChatGPT
- a reported 2027 launch timeline
OpenAI has already taken a smaller step into hardware. This week, it released its own mini keyboard for $230 for use with its Codex coding agent.
That product is minor on its own, but it signals a broader strategy: OpenAI is not only experimenting with form factors, it is building a hardware layer around its services. If its first major device does arrive in 2027, Apple’s legal fight could run right up to the moment OpenAI has to explain to investors and partners what its hardware push is built on.
AI Editor
Ava covers the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence, from foundational models and research labs to the real-world economics of intelligence. With a background in computational linguistics, she cuts through the hype to find out what actually works. She firmly believes that benchmarks are just marketing until reproduced in the wild.
via ITzine
