Apple seeks to freeze OpenAI's hardware program 90 days before a planned $850M IPO, alleging trade secret theft from its supply chain.
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Apple sued OpenAI for trade secret theft this week, filing a preliminary injunction designed to freeze Sam Altman's hardware program 90 days before a planned IPO. The complaint, unsealed Monday, accuses OpenAI of poaching engineers from Apple's materials and manufacturing teams, then using proprietary processes to build a custom AI chip that competes directly with Apple's own silicon roadmap.
The injunction would halt production at OpenAI's contracted fabrication facilities, Apple argued, because the stolen trade secrets involve sub-millimeter assembly tolerances and thermal-management techniques that cannot be reversed once cutting begins. A trial on the merits could take 12–18 months; Apple wants the program stopped before the first production run ships.
OpenAI's hardware effort is the centerpiece of its pre-IPO fundraising pitch, pegging the valuation at $850 billion, according to the filing. A shutdown of even 60–90 days would delay the chip's launch past the IPO window, forcing the company to either disclose the litigation risk in its S-1 or push the offering into 2026. Two of the engineers named in the suit left Apple in late 2024 and joined OpenAI by February, the complaint said.
Apple's legal strategy leans on the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act, which permits injunctive relief when irreparable harm is shown. The company said the chip design directly incorporates Apple's chip-architecture and foundry-vendor data, giving OpenAI an estimated 18-month head start on next-generation AI inference hardware. A hearing on the injunction is set for Nov. 14 in the Northern District of California.
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