Apple names 11 more ex-staff in OpenAI trade-secrets fight

The escalation itself is the small news. The bigger signal is what Apple is asking a court to do with it: not just recover documents, but stop OpenAI from building certain products at all while the case proceeds.

In a filing on August 4, TechCrunch reported that Apple identified 11 additional former employees, beyond the two already named (Chang Liu, a senior systems engineer, and Tang Yew Tan), who "may have been witnesses or otherwise involved" in the alleged theft of trade secrets. According to the filing, one ex-employee "took screenshots of confidential Apple documents relating to an unannounced Apple product before an interview at OpenAI," and another met with Liu and OpenAI's Yu-Ting Peng to discuss Apple proprietary information about unannounced products ahead of Peng's interview.

The headline ask is the preliminary injunction. Apple wants a judge to bar OpenAI from developing AI devices or products based on Apple's technology while the litigation runs, and it is also seeking expedited discovery from the named individuals, OpenAI, its foundation, and io, the hardware startup co-founded by former Apple lead designer Jony Ive. According to Reuters coverage syndicated by Yahoo Finance, Apple had offered to forgo the injunction if OpenAI agreed to five conditions; OpenAI accepted three (halting future access, ceasing ongoing use, retaining evidence) but refused the two that would have let Apple's lawyers and forensic experts examine OpenAI's devices, drives, accounts, and network locations. The hearing is set for October 1, 2026.

OpenAI's public line, per Reuters, is that the injunction request is "based on false information and completely unnecessary because we do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets," and a separate statement to TechCrunch said the company is "much more interested in building innovative products and technologies that push the frontier."

The honest caveat is that this is one side's filing being tested for the first time in court, and the reporting does not identify the 11 additional employees, does not spell out which unannounced Apple product the alleged screenshots referenced, and does not detail the specific evidence behind the meeting allegation. Take the specifics as reported, not settled.

What to watch, if you build or hire in this space, is October 1. If a judge grants even a narrow injunction against a company of OpenAI's profile on the basis of ex-employee conduct, the cost of hiring senior hardware talent out of Apple, or letting them bring a laptop to a coffee chat, just went up for everyone chasing an AI device.