Apple has escalated its legal battle against OpenAI, filing new court documents that accuse the AI company of destroying evidence in an ongoing trade secrets lawsuit. Evidence-destruction claims can carry significant weight in US civil litigation, where courts may impose sanctions or allow juries to draw adverse inferences against a party found to have spoliated evidence, though such findings are determined by the judge and not by the accusations themselves.

Apple claims in a new court filing that @OpenAI is actively destroying crucial evidence in trade secrets case. Apple's lawyers say an initial forensic analysis of an Apple-issued MacBook used by a former iPhone engineer found evidence that he and others at OpenAI were aware of… pic.twitter.com/Fs2RiZo9Gg

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) August 31, 2026

The case centers on Chang Liu, a former Apple engineer who left the company in January to join OpenAI. Apple says Liu is one of more than 400 former Apple employees now working at the ChatGPT maker — a figure that itself underscores the scale of talent movement between established tech companies and AI firms, which has fueled similar trade secrets disputes across the industry in recent years.

Apple's latest filing was submitted Monday to support its motion for expedited pretrial fact-finding. The company wants to gather evidence quickly, claiming more employees may be involved. Expedited discovery is typically granted only when a party shows a risk that evidence could be lost or harmed, which is precisely the concern Apple is raising here.

What the Laptop Revealed

Liu's Apple-issued MacBook was handed over to Apple's legal team for forensic analysis. The results, according to Apple, produced its strongest evidence yet.

Apple says Liu downloaded a confidential Apple circuit schematic and used it in his work at OpenAI (AAPL). His laptop also showed he continued to access Apple's third-party cloud storage after leaving the company. Apple claims Liu and others at OpenAI were "well aware" of this unauthorized access. The filing notes that OpenAI only handed over the laptop after weeks of delay.

The most serious claim is that Liu sent instructions to an OpenAI colleague to destroy evidence after learning he was under investigation. That colleague, identified as Yu-Ting Peng, confirmed she would comply, Apple says.

Apple argues the laptop proves "trade secrets are being used and evidence is being destroyed," calling it some of the only evidence OpenAI has handed over so far.

OpenAI Denies the Allegations

OpenAI has denied wrongdoing and is pushing to have the case dismissed. The company says it followed standard recruiting practices when hiring former Apple staff.

OpenAI argues that Liu only accessed Apple files after leaving in order to help former colleagues who asked for his assistance, and it released text message excerpts to back that claim.

OpenAI has also said Liu's continued access was the result of Apple failing to manage system permissions when he departed. Apple counters that Liu actually exploited "a rare, previously unknown authentication bug." The dispute over why Liu retained access highlights a common point of contention in employee-departure cases: determining whether a breach stems from misconfigured offboarding or deliberate exploitation by the departing employee.

Apple says OpenAI has been slow to hand over evidence throughout the case. Apple also claims Liu used a tool at OpenAI that shares the same name as an internal Apple engineering application. No further details about the tool were disclosed.

The relationship between Apple and OpenAI has grown tense over the past year. Tension increased after OpenAI enlisted former Apple design chief Jony Ive to help build hardware products. OpenAI's first reported hardware device is described as a doughnut-shaped smart speaker about the size of a hockey puck, with moving parts.

Apple is seeking monetary damages and wants a court order to stop OpenAI from using any stolen materials. A federal judge is set to hear arguments on Apple's motion on October 1. The judge's decision on expedited discovery — and on OpenAI's dismissal push — will shape how quickly the underlying allegations are tested.

Source: CoinCentral