Apple lawsuit reveals how many of its former employees now work at OpenAI

Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI on Friday, accusing the company of trade secret theft and revealing that over 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI. The lawsuit claims OpenAI exploited confidential information from these employees to jumpstart its hardware efforts and structure its interview processes.

Apple filed a blockbuster lawsuit against OpenAI https://9to5mac.com/2026/07/10/apple-sues-openai-trade-secret-theft/ on Friday, accusing the company of trade secret theft. There are a lot of interesting tidbits throughout the initial filing, but one stat in particular stood out to me: the number of former Apple employees now working at OpenAI. More than 400 Apple employees now work at OpenAI According to Apple’s filing, more than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI. Because of this, Apple says “it is not surprising” that OpenAI employees have knowledge of secretive Apple information: With over four hundred former Apple employees now working at OpenAI, it is not surprising that certain OpenAI personnel have knowledge of Apple’s confidential and proprietary information, which they are obligated to keep confidential. But OpenAI has resorted to exploiting this confidential information, using it to extract still more from Apple’s current employees and trusted partners, and to structure its interview processes to try to solicit additional confidential Apple information—all while taking steps to conceal its actions. That OpenAI now employs people who were once entrusted with Apple’s trade secrets does not entitle OpenAI to use that information to jumpstart its hardware efforts. While Apple doesn’t get into specifics, we know from Bloomberg reporting that Apple employees across countless teams https://9to5mac.com/2025/09/19/openai-and-jony-ive-poach-apple-designers-target-key-suppliers-for-hardware-push/ inside Apple have left https://9to5mac.com/2025/09/19/openai-and-jony-ive-poach-apple-designers-target-key-suppliers-for-hardware-push/ for OpenAI. Most recently, OpenAI poached Paul Meade https://9to5mac.com/2026/06/26/openai-poaches-apple-vision-pro-and-smart-glasses-chief/ , who had been in charge of Apple Vision Pro and Apple’s smart glasses project. In fact, in a report on Saturday, Bloomberg said https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-11/openai-engineer-s-lol-moment-set-stage-for-legal-fight-with-apple?srnd=undefined that “most” of OpenAI’s Apple recruits are from Apple’s engineering division led by incoming Apple CEO John Ternus. The report also noted that Tang Tan, OpenAI’s hardware chief and former Apple design chief, had a “strained” relationship with Ternus during his time at Apple. The outcome of Apple’s lawsuit against OpenAI remains to be seen. Regardless, it’s bound to be a fascinating saga to follow — especially if it reaches the discovery phase. What are your thoughts on the lawsuit? Let us know down in the comments. You can read Apple’s full filing here. https://9to5mac.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2026/07/Apple-Inc.-v.-Liu-et-al.pdf Chance’s favorites: AirPods Pro 3: $199 Reg. $249 https://amzn.to/4uUqAwW Bring wireless CarPlay to any car https://amzn.to/3RBXa7T “Apple: The First 50 Years” by David Pogue https://amzn.to/3RZWqtm Logitech MX Master 4 https://amzn.to/4adTvDF Belkin 3-in-1 MagSafe Charger https://amzn.to/4fpVjgj Beats Woven USB-C Charging Cables https://amzn.to/4ekuxou Follow Chance : Threads https://www.threads.net/@ChanceHMiller , Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/chancemiller.me , Instagram https://www.instagram.com/chancehmiller/ , and Mastodon https://mastodon.social/@ChanceHMiller . FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More. https://9to5mac.com/about/ affiliate our homepage http://9to5mac.com/ for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on exclusive stories https://9to5mac.com/feature/exclusive/ , reviews https://9to5mac.com/guides/review/ , how-tos https://9to5mac.com/guides/how-to/ , and subscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/9to5mac