When Apple sues OpenAI, you would expect the fight to be about Siri. It isn't. The complaint Apple filed on Friday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California is about hardware: circuit boards, metal finishing, product design, and the people who walked out of Cupertino carrying knowledge of all three.

Apple's case names two former employees, Tang Tan and Chang Liu, alongside OpenAI and io Products, the hardware startup OpenAI bought last year. The framing is blunt. Apple says its former staff took its trade secrets for OpenAI's benefit, and it has gone to court to stop it. Apple also says what has surfaced so far is only the tip of the iceberg.

Who Apple has named, and who it hasn't

Tang Tan was VP of product design at Apple, running iPhone and Apple Watch product design before leaving in February 2024 to work with Jony Ive. Chang Liu spent eight years at Apple as a senior system electrical engineer and left to join OpenAI in January 2026. OpenAI and io Products are named as corporate defendants.

The omissions matter as much as the names. Jony Ive leads OpenAI's hardware effort, and OpenAI acquired his startup io in a $6.5 billion deal that brought over more than 50 engineers and developers. Ive founded io with Scott Cannon, Evans Hankey and Tan, all of whom have Apple histories. None of Ive, Hankey or Cannon is personally named in the initial filing. Apple has aimed at the individuals it can tie to specific acts, not at the famous ones.

The allegations against Tang Tan

Interviews as intelligence gathering. Apple claims Tan used insider knowledge of confidential Apple projects to press job candidates during interviews.
"Show and tell" with real hardware. Apple alleges Tan directed candidates who still worked at Apple to bring actual Apple hardware components and samples to those sessions.
A pattern, not a one-off. Apple points to a candidate who allegedly screenshotted and downloaded files on a highly confidential project in the hours before interviewing with Tan, who then asked about that same project. Apple calls this an established pattern.
The "Need to Know" document. placeholder