Apple alleges ex-engineer used stolen schematics at OpenAI

Apple ↘ 2.51% escalated its trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI on Monday, filing a supplemental brief in U.S. federal court that alleges former senior electrical engineer Chang Liu downloaded a confidential circuit schematic and actively used it in his work at OpenAI — and that evidence is being destroyed.

The new allegations stem from a forensic analysis of a MacBook that Liu's attorneys handed over on August 21 as part of legal proceedings. According to Apple's filing in the Northern District of California, the laptop revealed that Liu downloaded a power-converter circuit schematic from Apple's third-party cloud storage on March 7, 2026 — roughly two months after leaving Apple for OpenAI in January.reuters+1

What the MacBook Revealed

Apple's brief outlines four central findings from the forensic inspection. Liu allegedly used the downloaded schematic to run a simulation in LTspice, an electrical engineering tool, on March 18 under the user profile "changliu." The simulation produced output files that were uploaded to Liu's iCloud account from a separate Mac Mini and later synced to the MacBook.9to5mac+1

Messages attributed to Liu from that period describe his AI "agent" learning "how to run LTspice and look at result, tune compensation parameter," with Liu noting that power conversion development work that previously took a day now took two hours. Apple argued in its filing that when trade secret information is fed into an AI agent that learns from it, the resulting use "may create irreversible and continually propagating uses of the trade secret".unite+1

Allegations of Evidence Destruction

Perhaps most damaging, Apple alleges that after Liu learned of Apple's internal investigation in June 2026, he exchanged messages with OpenAI colleague Yu-Ting ("Alyssa") Peng, instructing her to have Apple-issued devices "restored" and then to "start using" them — conduct Apple characterized as "anti-forensic" because it overwrites forensic artifacts. Peng allegedly confirmed she would comply.macrumors+2

Apple called the findings "shocking evidence" that its trade secrets are in active use and urged the court to grant expedited discovery.macrumors

OpenAI's Position

OpenAI has moved to dismiss the lawsuit, calling the accusations "meritless." In an earlier public response posted August 3, the company said residual file access stemmed from Apple's failure to properly manage system access for departing employees. "We do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets," OpenAI stated. OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday's filing, according to Reuters.reuters+1

Under the current schedule, defendants may file a five-page response by September 4, with a hearing on the expedited-discovery motion set for October 1 before Judge Edward J. Davila.unite