Apple sued OpenAI. What you need to know

Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the company of using trade secrets and confidential data to develop its own artificial intelligence devices. The conflict was an unexpected turn in the relationship between the two tech giants, who had recently collaborated on the integration of ChatGPT into the Apple ecosystem. What you need to know about this and other major AI disputes is in the Izvestia article.

From cooperation to competition

• Apple sued OpenAI, accusing the company of stealing trade secrets and using confidential information to create its own artificial intelligence device. According to Apple, OpenAI lured its employees away and encouraged them to hand over classified data, including materials about future products, designs, and internal processes. Apple said there was significant evidence that former OpenAI employees had illegally gained access to classified information about yet-to-be-released technologies.

• OpenAI denies all charges and says it does not use other companies' trade secrets. At the same time, the company is preparing to enter the consumer device market. In 2025, OpenAI acquired IO design studio, founded by former Apple chief designer Johnny Ive, for $6.5 billion, after which it increased its recruitment of Apple employees.

• The legal conflict was a dramatic change in the relationship between the two companies, which entered into a major partnership in 2024.: Apple has integrated ChatGPT into the iPhone, iPad, and Mac operating systems. However, the recently updated version of the Siri voice assistant received artificial intelligence based on Google's Gemini model, rather than ChatGPT.

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• The lawsuit alleges that several former Apple employees who joined OpenAI took confidential data with them. Among them is Tang Yu Tang, a former Apple vice president. Apple claims that he received information about the company's suppliers and allegedly asked candidates to work at OpenAI to bring real Apple components to interviews in order to receive additional confidential information.

• Apple accuses another former employee, Chang Liu, of taking a corporate laptop after being fired, exploiting an authentication vulnerability to access the internal network, and downloading dozens of confidential hardware-related files. Apple is demanding compensation for damages and an injunction that will prevent OpenAI from storing or using its trade secrets.

From non-profit to commercial

• This is not the first case of AI giants' legal disputes. So, on May 18, the head of SpaceX, Elon Musk, lost a court dispute with OpenAI. The court rejected his claim for $150 billion: the jury decided that the entrepreneur had filed claims against OpenAI and its co-founder and CEO Sam Altman too late. Musk insisted that the organization had illegally changed its status from non-profit to commercial.

The billionaire said that such a court decision sets a dangerous precedent. In his opinion, after that, any charitable organization can be turned into a commercial project, which endangers the very system of non-profit activities in the United States.

• The trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI began on April 27, 2026 in California. The billionaire accused the company, its CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman of abandoning the original non-profit model in order to make a profit. Musk demanded that the management of OpenAI be removed, the commercial division be shut down, and more than $150 billion be recovered. He stated that if he won, he would transfer compensation to the non-profit part of the company.

• The controversy started back in 2024. Then Musk filed a lawsuit, then withdrew it, and two months later he went back to the federal court. During the hearing, the entrepreneur said that he had invested $38 million in OpenAI and later called this investment a mistake. He noted that he did not object to the creation of a commercial structure, but believed that the management of AGI development should have remained with a non-profit organization. OpenAI explained that the restructuring was required to attract large investments.

The fight against monopolies

• In addition to the struggle between AI giants, states are increasingly trying to control the field of high technology. So, on July 2, 2026, the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg dismissed the complaint of Google and its parent company Alphabet. Thus, the fine of €4.1 billion (about $4.7 billion), which the company received in the case of violating antitrust rules when promoting the Google Search search engine on Android devices, was finally preserved. The proceedings have been ongoing since 2018, when the European Commission found abuse of its dominant position in the mobile operating system market.

• According to the European Commission, Google used the conditions for smartphone manufacturers and mobile operators to strengthen the position of its own services. The court supported the conclusions of the antimonopoly authorities and did not agree with the arguments of the company about the mistakes made during the consideration of the case.

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• Google continues to consider the claims unfounded. The company points to its investments in the development of the open Android platform and recalls that the European authorities do not stop Apple's similar practice with regard to the iPhone. This case has become the largest antitrust fine in the history of the EU, and the total amount of penalties imposed on Google in Europe over the past 10 years has approached €11 billion.