This week’s episode of The Woozad Show covers OpenAI’s move to hardware and the trade secret lawsuit Apple filed against the company earlier this month.
Apple sued OpenAI in the Northern District of California on July 10, alleging a months-long scheme to obtain confidential information about unreleased products. The complaint involves OpenAI hardware director Tang Tan, a 24-year Apple veteran who previously led iPhone product design, and former Apple electrical engineer Chang Liu. Apple claims that Tan coached recruits to avoid his security procedures during exit interviews and asked at least one employee to bring hardware components to an interview, and that OpenAI persuaded a vendor to apply a proprietary metal-finishing technique to an OpenAI device by falsely representing that it had Apple’s authorization. The filing describes OpenAI’s hardware business as “rotten to the core.”
The lawsuit follows a downgrade of the 2024 partnership that brought ChatGPT to Siri, with OpenAI itself weighing legal options against Apple in May. More than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, including Vision Products group head Paul Meade and former design chief Jony Ive leading design of the hardware line through LoveFrom after OpenAI acquired his startup io Products for $6.5 billion. Apple responded by offering retention bonuses of up to $400,000 and has now sent legal preservation letters to around 40 former employees, suggesting the alleged misappropriation goes beyond those named. OpenAI says it has “no interest in other companies’ trade secrets.”
BloombergMark Gurman says the case is already causing damage before any decision, dissuading Apple engineers from interviewing OpenAI and making Asian suppliers hesitant to deepen their ties with the company. Ive is not named in the complaint, which Gurman said was deliberate given Apple’s relationship with io Products investor Laurene Powell Jobs.
OpenAI’s first device, teased for months by Ive and CEO Sam Altman, would be a screen-less portable smart speaker that is now expected in early 2027 for $200 to $300. Powered by ChatGPT and GPT-Live, it has a rechargeable battery so it can be carried between rooms, a camera to understand its surroundings, and motorized elements that move on their own to make the device appear alive. OpenAI wouldn’t consider the HomePod or HomePod mini comparable, and people familiar with the project have said so. Bloomberg The device is unlike anything Apple sells, making any infringement unlikely. Apple’s smart home hub is the closest analogue.
Further, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that OpenAI is developing an “AI agent phone” built around a continuous, context-aware interface rather than individual applications, with the company controlling both the operating system and hardware. Kuo has since revised its 2028 mass production forecast to the first half of 2027, forecasting combined 2027 and 2028 deliveries of around 30 million units. The device is rumored to be a direct rival to the iPhone.
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