Tech news in 3 minutes
Apple shares ‘shocking evidence’ against former employee accused of stealing company data for OpenAI
Apple filed "shocking evidence" in its trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that former employee Chang Liu stole confidential circuit schematics and used an internal Apple engineering tool while working at OpenAI, intensifying the high-stakes legal battle over employee poaching and intellectual property theft in the AI chip and technology sector. The new details emerged after Liu’s legal counsel handed over his old Apple work laptop earlier this month. Apple now claims Liu exploited a rare, previously unknown authentication bug to retain access to Apple data, and that OpenAI was "well-aware" of his continued access. The company further alleges that Liu enlisted OpenAI colleague Yu-Ting Peng to help destroy evidence in June when he learned Apple was investigating him. "The MacBook represents the very limited information Defendants provided so far... and shows Apple is not conducting 'fishing expeditions' but that its trade secrets are being used and evidence is being destroyed," the filing states. While the new evidence is redacted from public view, past filings included text messages from Liu—punctuated with "crying laughing" emojis—showing he knew he still had access to Apple files. OpenAI has previously defended Liu, stating he only accessed files after leaving Apple to help former colleagues, and blamed Apple for failing to properly manage system access. Apple is now seeking a preliminary injunction to block OpenAI from working on hardware based on Apple’s technology, along with expedited discovery, as it alleges more former employees may be implicated. According to Apple’s initial filing, over 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI. TechCrunch has requested comment from OpenAI on the latest allegations.