The company that once partnered with OpenAI to put ChatGPT on every iPhone is now suing it for theft. On July 10, 2026, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) filed a trade secret lawsuit against OpenAI in federal court, alleging a systematic campaign to steal confidential hardware designs. Apple’s language was pointed: the scheme operated “at every level,” as an organized effort. Elon Musk immediately piled on.
What Apple Is Alleging
Apple’s complaint names two former employees now at OpenAI: Tang Tan, OpenAI’s hardware chief, and engineer Chang Liu. Per CNBC and others, departing staff carried confidential product information out the door, and OpenAI interviewers encouraged job candidates to bring Apple prototypes and parts to interviews. The alleged target: hardware know-how behind OpenAI’s consumer-device ambitions, tied to io Products, the Jony Ive startup OpenAI acquired. OpenAI says it is “reviewing the filing” and has “no interest” in competitors’ trade secrets. These remain allegations; OpenAI has not responded in court.
Musk Piles On
On X, Musk resurfaced an old post branding Sam Altman “Scam Altman,” adding “He takes scamming to a whole new level.” He wrote that Altman graduated from “stealing an open source AI charity” to “trying to steal all of Apple’s phone technology.” To another post: “Sounds pretty bad.” To a third: “!!” On Apple’s description of a coordinated scheme: “They sure put a lot of effort into this crime.” Backstory: Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015, left its board in 2018, and lost a May 2026 jury verdict over the nonprofit dispute. Apple’s suit gives him a stage to relitigate as a commentator.
Altman’s Counterpunch
Altman fired back on X: “homeboy you’re the one selling public market investors on short-term space datacenters.” That targets SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX), now around a $1.1 trillion valuation after its IPO and its xAI acquisition, which has pitched orbital data centers as an answer to AI’s energy demands. When a rival AI CEO publicly mocks that pillar, SPCX shareholders should note it. The stock is soft: shares fell 4.51% on July 10 and 10.31% on the week. Elsewhere Altman was diplomatic, calling Apple an “s-tier company” and saying he is “not afraid” of it.
Worst Possible Timing
OpenAI has confidentially filed for an IPO targeting a valuation north of $1 trillion. Polymarket bettors currently give 51.5% odds to a $1.0T year-end valuation and just 5.5% to $3.0T, with month-over-month prices declining across every high threshold. Reports that Microsoft is leaning on in-house models inside productivity apps are worth confirming, but the drift is clear: partner relationships are fraying.
Who Wins, Who Loses
Apple closed Friday at $315.32, down 0.28%, on a stock up 16.2% year to date. Reddit sentiment barely flinched, sitting in a neutral 42 to 63 range through the weekend. The suit injects uncertainty into the ChatGPT-Siri integration, but immediate market damage lands on OpenAI’s story.
The most anticipated AI IPO in history is heading to market during what may be its issuer’s worst week. The open question is whether OpenAI can get its story straight before asking the public to buy in.
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