Apple Alleges Ex-Engineer Accessed Circuit Plans at OpenAI

Apple alleges former engineer accessed circuit plans while at OpenAI

New Delhi, September 1

In the court submission, Apple stated that a defendant in its trade secret case against ChatGPT creator OpenAI accessed a power converter circuit schematic while working at the artificial intelligence firm.

"Apple, opens new tab on Monday alleged that a defendant in its trade secret case against ChatGPT creator OpenAI accessed a power converter circuit schematic while at OpenAI, according to a filing in U.S. federal court," Reuters said.

Apple identified the former employee as Chang Liu, who previously worked as a senior system electrical engineer at Apple. The company alleged that Liu accessed the power converter circuit and trained an artificial intelligence agent using proprietary Apple information in March 2026.

According to the news report, the information surfaced during the formal exchange of materials between the legal teams. Apple stated that the new evidence came to light from a MacBook computer that OpenAI provided to Apple on August 21 as part of the ongoing legal proceedings.

Following the examination of the device, Apple moved the US federal court with a request to accelerate the process of obtaining further evidence. Apple asked the court to expedite discovery proceedings in the trade secret case against OpenAI.

OpenAI sought to challenge the legal action brought by Apple. The artificial intelligence firm asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit entirely.

In addressing the dispute over its technology and design processes, OpenAI defended its development work against the trade secret allegations.

OpenAI maintained that it is building products that are "entirely new."

The legal proceedings between the two technology companies continue in US federal court as Apple pushes for expedited discovery of the case.

— ANI