{"slug": "apple-shares-shocking-evidence-against-former-employee-accused-of-stealing-data", "title": "Apple shares ‘shocking evidence’ against former employee accused of stealing company data for OpenAI", "summary": "Apple filed new evidence in its trade-secret lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that former employee Chang Liu used a confidential Apple circuit schematic in his work at OpenAI and enlisted colleague Yu-Ting Peng to destroy evidence. Apple claims OpenAI was 'well-aware' of Liu's access, while OpenAI has defended Liu, saying he only helped former colleagues. Apple is seeking a preliminary injunction and expedited discovery, noting that more than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI.", "body_md": "In its lawsuit against OpenAI, Apple filed what it calls “shocking evidence” to bolster its allegations that former employees [stole trade secrets for OpenAI’s benefit](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/10/apple-sues-openai-over-alleged-trade-secret-theft/). These new details emerged after the legal counsel for former Apple employee Chang Liu — who now works at OpenAI — handed over Liu’s old Apple work laptop for investigation earlier this month.\n\nApple now [alleges](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.474095/gov.uscourts.cand.474095.94.1.pdf) that Liu used a confidential Apple circuit schematic in his work at OpenAI, as well as a tool that shares a name with an internal Apple engineering application. The company claims that OpenAI was “well-aware” of Liu’s access to Apple data, and that Liu enlisted OpenAI colleague Yu-Ting Peng to help destroy evidence in June when he learned that Apple was investigating him.\n\n“The MacBook represents the very limited information Defendants provided so far (and only after weeks of delay), and shows Apple is not conducting ‘fishing expeditions’ but that its trade secrets are being used and evidence is being destroyed,” the [filing](https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.474095/gov.uscourts.cand.474095.94.1.pdf) reads.\n\nWhile this new evidence is redacted from public view, past filings from Apple have included [text messages from Liu](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/the-wildest-allegations-in-apples-trade-secrets-lawsuit-against-openai/) — which he punctuated with “crying laughing” emojis — showing he was aware that he still had access to Apple files.\n\nOpenAI has previously [defended Liu](https://openai.com/index/apple-is-getting-this-wrong/) by saying that he only accessed Apple files after he stopped working there in order to help former colleagues who asked for his assistance. “Apple now tries to shift the blame to ‘residual access,’ but they also don’t disclose that this is a common issue with Apple which is caused by them failing to properly manage system access when people leave,” OpenAI wrote in a [blog post](https://openai.com/index/apple-is-getting-this-wrong/) earlier this month.\n\nBut Apple [claims](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/apple-says-former-employee-exploited-rare-bug-to-download-confidential-files-after-leaving-for-openai/) that Liu had continued access because he “exploited a rare, previously unknown authentication bug.”\n\nTechCrunch has requested comment from OpenAI on Apple’s newest allegations.\n\nApple is seeking a preliminary injunction — a court order that would block OpenAI from working on hardware based on Apple’s technology while the case is ongoing — as well as expedited discovery, a fast-tracked process for gathering evidence, since the company alleges that more former employees may also be implicated.\n\nAccording to Apple’s initial filing, more than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/apple-shares-shocking-evidence-against-former-employee-accused-of-stealing-data", "canonical_source": "https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/31/apple-shares-shocking-evidence-against-former-employee-accused-of-stealing-company-data-for-openai/", "published_at": "2026-09-01 00:13:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-01 00:23:14.005381+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy"], "entities": ["Apple", "OpenAI", "Chang Liu", "Yu-Ting Peng", "TechCrunch"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/apple-shares-shocking-evidence-against-former-employee-accused-of-stealing-data", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/apple-shares-shocking-evidence-against-former-employee-accused-of-stealing-data.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/apple-shares-shocking-evidence-against-former-employee-accused-of-stealing-data.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/apple-shares-shocking-evidence-against-former-employee-accused-of-stealing-data.jsonld"}}