The San Francisco-based company insists that Apple has only itself to blame in the ongoing fight.
The Allegations and Evidence
On September 1, 2026, Apple presented what it explicitly termed "shocking evidence" to support its ongoing legal case. This claim of evidence is based on an internal analysis of a MacBook owned by Chang Liu.
Liu is a former Apple employee who recently transitioned to a new role at OpenAI. According to Apple's allegations, two of its former employees stole sensitive corporate trade secrets before departing the company.
The company specified that the allegedly stolen materials related directly to proprietary hardware design, alongside other internal matters. The tech giant is aggressively pursuing these claims amid a broader hiring dispute.
OpenAI's Legal Rebuttal
OpenAI struck back against these claims in a formal legal filing submitted late Monday. The artificial intelligence company strongly denied Apple's allegations that any proprietary information was stolen by its former workers.
OpenAI firmly rejected the premise of the hardware design theft accusations, using the court documents to push back against the narrative. The AI company hit back with its own legal filing to challenge the tech giant's allegations.
"This dispute is a mess of Apple's own making, and it is trying to blame everyone else," OpenAI stated in the late Monday filing. The company officially denies the theft claims and maintains that Apple bears full responsibility for the situation.