OpenAI engineer’s ‘LOL’ moment set stage for legal fight with Apple | Fortune
An iPhone engineer's "LOL" discovery triggered Apple's trade secret lawsuit against OpenAI: Chang Liu found he could still access Apple's network storage after leaving, messaged a colleague "LOL, I found out I can access the [network storage], so funny," and then downloaded presentations.
TL;DR
An iPhone engineer's "LOL" discovery triggered Apple's trade secret lawsuit against OpenAI: Chang Liu found he could still access Apple's network storage after leaving, messaged a colleague "LOL, I found out I can access the [network storage], so funny," and then downloaded presentations, hardware designs, and testing procedures while already working at OpenAI.
Apple alleges OpenAI ran a systematic poaching operation led by former Apple exec Tang Tan: Tan, who became OpenAI's chief hardware officer, is accused of using job interviews to extract information about Apple projects and asking candidates to bring unreleased hardware components to show-and-tell sessions.
OpenAI allegedly distributed a "checklist" to help new hires evade Apple's security when stealing data: The checklist, reportedly put together by Tan, instructed employees to send information from Apple devices to personal email accounts before resigning.
Over 400 former Apple employees have joined OpenAI's hardware division, drawn by salaries and stock options that trumped Apple's packages: The exodus includes senior hardware and design leaders, with the most recent being Apple's smart glasses chief Paul Meade in June 2026.
Apple tried to resolve the dispute privately in February but OpenAI never responded, leading to the blockbuster lawsuit: The 40-page complaint describes OpenAI's hardware business as "rotten to its core" by misappropriated trade secrets.
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