Apple alleges OpenAI defendant accessed circuit schematic

Apple Inc. has escalated its legal battle against artificial intelligence startup OpenAI, filing new allegations in U.S. federal court stating that a defendant accessed confidential power converter circuit schematics while employed at OpenAI. According to the court documents, Apple also alleged that the defendant utilized proprietary company information to train an AI agent. The tech giant revealed that this evidence was uncovered from a MacBook computer provided by OpenAI on August 21 as part of discovery proceedings. The development stems from Apple's trade secret theft lawsuit initially filed on July 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, which concerns unreleased consumer hardware technology. Named defendants in the litigation include OpenAI, hardware startup io Products, former Apple Vice President Tang Yew Tan, and former Apple engineer Chang Liu. Apple has formally requested that the federal court expedite its discovery proceedings. From a market perspective, the ongoing litigation underscores the high-stakes intellectual property tensions between leading tech titans and generative AI firms. While Apple's stock traded down 0.89% around $316.85 following the report, investors continue monitoring legal developments for potential risks to proprietary hardware roadmaps and trade secrets.