Apple has filed what it calls shocking evidence in its federal trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that former senior system electrical engineer Chang Liu accessed confidential circuit schematics and trained an AI agent with proprietary data months after joining the artificial intelligence startup in March 2026.
The MacBook Handover and New Trade Secret Allegations
The legal battle between Apple and ChatGPT creator OpenAI intensified after legal counsel for former Apple employee Chang Liu handed over Liu’s old Apple work laptop for investigation earlier this month in August 2026. According to court filings in U.S. federal court reported by Reuters, Apple alleges that Liu accessed a power converter circuit schematic while working at OpenAI and trained an AI agent using proprietary Apple information in March 2026. Apple says the new evidence came to light from a MacBook computer OpenAI provided to Apple on August 21 as part of legal proceedings.
Apple maintains that the new evidence demonstrates its trade secrets are actively being exploited and that evidence destruction has occurred. The company claims Liu used a confidential Apple circuit schematic alongside a tool sharing its name with an internal Apple engineering application in his work at OpenAI. The MacBook represents the very limited information Defendants provided so far (and only after weeks of delay), and shows Apple is not conducting ‘fishing expeditions’ but that its trade secrets are being used and evidence is being destroyed,
the filing reads.
Evidence Destruction Claims and OpenAI Defense Strategies
The legal filings reveal sharp disagreements between the two companies regarding data access and employee conduct. Apple alleges that when Liu learned that Apple was investigating him in June, he enlisted OpenAI colleague Yu-Ting Peng to help destroy evidence. While public views of these details remain redacted, prior filings included text messages from Liu — which he punctuated with crying laughing
emojis — showing he was aware that he still had access to Apple files.
OpenAI has defended Liu by arguing that he only accessed Apple files after he stopped working there in order to help former colleagues who asked for his assistance. In a blog post earlier this month, OpenAI wrote, Apple now tries to shift the blame to ‘residual access,’ but they also don’t disclose that this is a common issue with Apple which is caused by them failing to properly manage system access when people leave.
Apple counters that Liu had continued access because he exploited a rare, previously unknown authentication bug,
and asserts that OpenAI was well-aware
of Liu’s access to Apple data.
Legal Motions and Accelerated Court Proceedings
Apple is currently pressing the U.S. federal court to expedite discovery proceedings in the trade secret case against OpenAI, a fast-tracked process for gathering evidence since the company alleges that more former employees may also be implicated. According to Apple’s initial filing, more than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI. Furthermore, Apple is seeking a preliminary injunction — a court order that would block OpenAI from working on hardware based on Apple’s technology while the case is ongoing.
OpenAI has sought to dismiss Apple’s lawsuit, saying it is building products that are entirely new.
As the legal proceedings continue in San Francisco with reporting by Stephen Nellis and editing by Matthew Lewis, OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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