Apple accuses OpenAI of destroying evidence in trade secrets case

Cris Tolomia Tue, September 1, 2026 at 4:08 AM PDT | 2 min read

Apple has filed a court brief accusing OpenAI of destroying evidence in the ongoing trade secrets dispute between the two companies. The filing also alleges that former Apple engineer Chang Liu incorporated a proprietary Apple circuit schematic into his work after joining OpenAI.

Key Allegations in Apple's Filing

• Apple submitted the brief in support of its motion for expedited pretrial fact-finding.
• A forensic analysis of an Apple-issued MacBook used by Liu since leaving Apple in January revealed that Liu and others at OpenAI were aware of his continued unauthorized access to Apple's third-party cloud storage providers.
• Apple claims that after Liu learned he was under investigation, he directed OpenAI colleague Yu-Ting Peng in June to destroy evidence, and that Peng agreed to do so.
• The filing also alleges that Liu used a tool at OpenAI that shares a name with an internal Apple engineering application.

Apple stated: "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."

OpenAI's Response

OpenAI filed its own brief on Monday, characterizing the dispute as "a mess of Apple's own making." The company argued that any Apple documents Liu accessed are irrelevant to his work at OpenAI, and that he opened the files on behalf of Apple employees for Apple work purposes.

OpenAI again criticized Apple's handling of data security and offboarding procedures, and asked the court to limit the scope of any injunction so as not to restrict workers from changing jobs.

Background

• Apple has maintained that Liu's post-departure access to its files resulted from his exploitation of an obscure authentication vulnerability that had not been previously identified.
• OpenAI responded that the root cause was Apple's own inadequate procedures for revoking system access when workers leave the company.
• The two companies have been in court since Apple sued OpenAI in July, accusing it and two former employees — Liu and Chief Hardware Officer Tang Yew Tan — of misappropriating trade secrets to advance OpenAI's push into consumer hardware.
• More than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, according to the complaint.
• OpenAI filed a motion to dismiss the case earlier this month, arguing Apple failed to sufficiently describe what it claims as trade secrets or demonstrate it owns protectable intellectual property.

What Apple Is Seeking

Apple is requesting:

• Monetary damages
• A preliminary injunction blocking OpenAI from working on hardware based on Apple's technology
• An order requiring the destruction of any proprietary materials

A judge is scheduled to hear arguments on the injunction motion on October 1.