OpenAI calls Apple's trade-secret lawsuit "rotten to the core"

On August 10, 2026, OpenAI filed a motion in federal court to dismiss Apple's lawsuit accusing the startup of stealing trade secrets. In its court filings, the company called all of the claims "baseless" and described the suit itself as "rotten to the core."

What exactly does Apple claim?

Apple sued OpenAI in July 2026, alleging that former Apple employees took confidential documents with them when they joined the startup and used them to advance the ChatGPT maker's projects. According to Apple, the materials include non-public technical work and business documents that were passed to a competitor without any authorization.

The suit is being called "landmark" for the American AI industry. It is one of the first large-scale legal disputes to directly address the movement of staff from traditional tech corporations to AI startups.

• Apple filed the suit in July 2026 in federal court in the Northern District of California
• The defendant is OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT
• The individuals involved are former Apple employees who went to work at OpenAI
• The core claim is that confidential documents were removed and used for OpenAI's benefit
• OpenAI filed its motion to dismiss on August 10, 2026

How OpenAI responds to the allegations

OpenAI flatly rejects all of the claims and asks the court to close the case before a full trial begins. The startup builds its defense on two arguments.

First, Apple wrongly treats the move of specialists as theft. In OpenAI's view, changing employers is standard practice in the tech industry, not an unlawful act. The company says there was no intentional theft of documents.

Second, Apple is assigning "trade secret" status to ordinary, "general" information about product development. US law requires a company to actively protect the confidentiality of information it wants recognized as a trade secret, and OpenAI says Apple did not do that.

"Apple did not take reasonable measures to maintain confidentiality,"

OpenAI's motion, filed with the court on August 10, 2026, states.

OpenAI also argues that an employee's accumulated professional knowledge and experience are legitimately theirs, and that they are entitled to take them to a new job. The line is crossed only when specific protected documents are deliberately removed. That distinction, the startup says, is exactly what Apple deliberately ignores in its claims.

"The lawsuit is rotten to the core," is how

OpenAI puts it in its official court filings, according to The Verge.

What this means for the AI industry

Apple v. OpenAI sets a precedent for the entire tech industry. The court will have to draw a line between protected trade secrets and a specialist's legitimate professional experience, and decide how tightly corporations can restrict the movement of AI talent to competitors.

The outcome could affect hiring practices across the industry. Specialists move constantly between AI labs, research divisions and startups in the US, and disputes like this one risk becoming the norm rather than the exception.