Apple has sent legal preservation letters to approximately 40 [1] former employees now working at OpenAI as part of a trade-secret lawsuit.
This escalation signals Apple's intent to protect its proprietary intellectual property amid the intensifying global race to develop advanced artificial intelligence. By targeting individual defectors, Apple seeks to identify how its confidential information may have migrated to a primary competitor.
The letters direct the former employees to preserve relevant documents and communications and ask them to meet with Apple, Gizmodo said.
Apple alleges that OpenAI stole its trade secrets [3]. The company is seeking evidence from former staff who may have taken confidential information during their transition to the AI firm [3]. This legal strategy follows a civil suit that targets OpenAI's chief hardware officer and a technical staff member, both of whom previously worked for Apple, Yahoo Finance said.
While some reports describe the number of targeted employees as dozens [2], other reports specify the count as around 40 [1]. These legal warnings were issued shortly after Apple filed its trade-secret lawsuit in June 2024 [4].
The move highlights the friction between corporate non-disclosure agreements and the fluid movement of talent in the AI sector. Apple is focusing on the potential leak of hardware and software secrets that could give OpenAI an unfair advantage in the development of AI-integrated devices.
“Apple has sent legal preservation letters to around 40 former Apple employees now working at OpenAI.”
This legal maneuver reflects a broader trend of 'talent wars' in the AI industry, where the movement of key engineers often leads to litigation over intellectual property. By issuing preservation letters, Apple is creating a legal paper trail to ensure evidence is not deleted before the discovery phase of the trial, potentially putting OpenAI employees in a precarious position between their current employer and their former one.
