On Friday, Apple announced it was suing OpenAI over alleged trade secret theft, claiming a former employee, system electrical engineer Chang Liu, “exploited a rare, previously unknown authentication bug” to download confidential files after leaving for a job at OpenAI. The bug is classified as a zero-day vulnerability, which Apple has since fixed, and the company terminated Liu’s access once it learned of the “security breach.” Apple said server logs indicated only Liu exploited the bug to steal data while no longer an employee, though the bug could have allowed a “few other” people access. Apple alleged Liu took “dozens of Apple’s confidential hardware-related files” over several weeks while at OpenAI, containing “detailed information about unreleased products, engineering presentations, technical specifications, and proprietary project data.” Liu also allegedly failed to return his Apple-issued work laptop and misused the access of acquaintance Yu-Ting Peng, a then-Apple employee who later went to OpenAI, using Peng’s Apple-issued work laptop “while she was still employed at Apple and he was not.” Apple said that during February 2026, Liu “tried to access Apple’s network storage.”