A mis-sent email led to the breakdown of negotiations between Apple and Open AI, followed by a lawsuit
What might have been a private disagreement with OpenAI turned into a public legal battle. The dispute stems from Apple's accusations that OpenAI systematically poached its hardware talent and stole trade secrets. Apple stated in the lawsuit that the company had written to OpenAI's general counsel Che Chang as early as February 2026, expressing serious concerns that its confidential information might flow to OpenAI, and asking the other party to take preventive measures, but OpenAI "never responded." However, an NBC News investigation revealed vastly different details of the communication breakdown. At 5:53 pm on February 23, 2026, Apple's external lawyer Gabriel Gross sent the first email to OpenAI general counsel Che Chang, with the subject "OpenAI former Apple employees retain non-public, confidential and proprietary information", and attached a letter and attachments. Just 13 minutes later, Gross sent a second email to Chang in the same email chain. The letter said: "Thank you for your call and thank you for your cooperation so quickly." But the call did not actually happen. Gross originally intended to send the reply to a former Apple employee named Wang (who later joined OpenAI), but mistakenly sent it to Chang. After receiving the email mentioning the "phone call," Chang believed that Apple's lawyers were fabricating facts to advance the lawsuit. He immediately contacted Apple's internal legal department and stated that he had never spoken to the lawyer and requested that he be removed from the case. Although Gross apologized and clarified the misunderstanding the next day, communication between the two parties was interrupted. OpenAI claimed that it had received no further contact from Apple until Apple formally filed the lawsuit last Friday. The direct consequence of this breakdown in communication was that Apple formally filed a lawsuit in California federal court on July 10, accusing OpenAI, its chief hardware officer Tang Tan (former Apple vice president of product design) and former engineer Chang Liu of stealing hardware trade secrets for unreleased products. Apple used strong language in its complaint, saying that more than 400 former Apple employees worked for OpenAI, and that OpenAI systematically obtained its confidential information through recruitment channels and supplier relationships to enter the consumer hardware market. An incorrectly sent email completely closed the door to out-of-court settlement between the two parties.