OpenAI told a federal judge in San Jose that forensic work in its trade-secret fight with Apple uncovered more than 100 confidential files about at least one unreleased OpenAI device on a former employee’s personal accounts, sent hours before he left the company to rejoin the iPhone maker. The allegation landed on the same day Judge Edward Davila said he was highly likely to grant Apple an injunction and as OpenAI volunteered not to use information Apple says its own defectors took.
What the filing describes
In a supplement filed Tuesday for a case management conference, OpenAI said the worker had joined from Apple, spent six months at the ChatGPT maker, and returned to Cupertino. The company alleges he emailed detailed images of unreleased hardware, engineering and manufacturing data, supplier lists, cosmetic-finish standards, and coating reports to personal inboxes. Some transfers occurred just after midnight in Singapore on 2 June 2026, which OpenAI identifies as his final day.
OpenAI also says the employee presented OpenAI product plans to senior Apple leadership, including the vice president of operations for Asia, months before the file transfers. The filing does not name the worker; Apple’s July lawsuit and subsequent disclosures have centred on hardware engineers who moved between the companies as both race toward consumer AI devices.
How Apple and the court responded
At Wednesday’s hearing, OpenAI agreed to collect forensic images from 14 employees’ devices that might hold Apple confidential information and not to use trade secrets Apple alleges were stolen, Bloomberg Law reported. Davila indicated he would likely side with Apple on injunctive relief while the broader case proceeds.
Apple told Reuters it has policies to stop new hires from using prior employers’ secrets and that it has not found evidence supporting OpenAI’s new claims. OpenAI says it asked Apple for assurances that Cupertino is not holding or using the device files and has not received them.
Why the timing matters
The counter-allegation arrives as both companies pitch investors and regulators on who controls the next wave of on-device AI. Apple sued OpenAI in July, accusing former staff and OpenAI hardware chief Jony Ive’s design shop of misappropriating iPhone manufacturing know-how. OpenAI’s filing asks for schedule room to investigate and, if warranted, pursue counterclaims.
Neither side has publicly described the unreleased hardware beyond “device” language in court papers. For readers tracking the sector, the dispute is less about chatbots than about whether silicon, supply-chain, and industrial-design data can move with employees between the two most valuable technology platforms in the United States.
What happens next
Davila is expected to formalize injunctive terms and discovery deadlines after the 14 October conference. OpenAI’s supplement asks the court to let it depose Apple on the returning employee’s presentations and personal-account transfers. Apple can challenge the narrative as litigation posturing, but the filing puts a concrete file count and date stamp in the record for the first time.
Regulators on both sides of the Pacific have not commented. If the forensic images OpenAI promised produce additional transfers, the case could widen beyond the engineers named in Apple’s original complaint to procurement and operations staff who never appeared in public filings.