# OpenAI Paid $6.5 Billion to Build an iPhone Rival. Apple Says It Was Built on Stolen Secrets. > Source: > Published: 2026-07-15 10:32:59+00:00 Last year, OpenAI acquired io, Jony Ive's hardware startup, for $6.5 billion. The deal was widely read as OpenAI's clearest signal yet that it was serious about building a physical device, something that could sit in your pocket the way an iPhone does, powered by AI agents instead of apps. A direct challenge to Apple's most important product. On Friday, Apple filed a lawsuit suggesting that challenge was built on a foundation of stolen confidential information through what Apple describes as a coordinated operation directed from the top of OpenAI's hardware division, the same division now tasked with building the device meant to compete with Apple. Apple isn't just alleging that some employees walked out with files they shouldn't have taken. It's alleging that the people now running OpenAI's hardware ambitions actively ran a system to extract Apple's most guarded technical knowledge, and that the $6.5 billion acquisition sits on top of that foundation.