OpenAI asks judge to throw out Apple's trade secrets lawsuit

OpenAI has asked a U.S. federal judge to dismiss Apple’s trade secrets lawsuit, Reuters and Axios report. Apple has accused OpenAI and two former Apple employees of taking confidential information tied to consumer hardware work.

OpenAI’s motion argues that Apple has not identified concrete trade secrets or plausibly alleged that OpenAI used them. In a public statement, OpenAI also says Apple misread messages involving former employee Chang Liu and that Apple employees were asking him to help locate information after he left, rather than showing that he supplied Apple files for OpenAI’s benefit.

The filing is an early legal step, not a final ruling. Apple is also seeking a preliminary injunction, and 9to5Mac reports that the hearing is expected later this year. If the case survives dismissal, discovery could force both companies to reveal more about their hardware roadmaps, hiring practices and internal controls around departing employees.

The broader signal is that AI competition is now pulling consumer hardware talent into court. OpenAI wants to build more of the device and interface stack around its models; Apple wants to protect the people and information behind its own future products.