OpenAI says ex-employee took more than 100 confidential files to Apple, Apple denies claim

OpenAI says a former employee moved more than 100 confidential files about an unreleased OpenAI device to personal accounts and then showed details to Apple, a claim disclosed in a recent court filing in the companies’ trade-secrets dispute.

The filing, cited across multiple outlets, says forensic work connected to the lawsuit identified the transfers and that some files were sent on June 2, the worker’s final day at OpenAI. OpenAI warned in its filing that material from those files could already be circulating inside Apple engineering teams and could inform Apple’s product plans.

The filing also alleges the former employee presented product plans to senior Apple executives and, in one report, specifically to Apple’s vice president of operations in Asia. Apple responded by denying the specific allegations and telling reporters it has found no evidence to support OpenAI’s account.

The Apple denial, reported in the same coverage, reiterated that Apple has previously accused some ex-employees of taking proprietary information to OpenAI’s consumer hardware efforts, highlighting that the two firms have traded competing claims about employee moves and confidential material.

One outlet reports OpenAI said the transfers were detected through a "recent and ongoing forensic investigation" tied to the lawsuit; OpenAI framed its concern as that confidential engineering information could be used to guide Apple’s hardware development.

Reporting differs in detail: some accounts describe the files as "approximately 100," others as "more than 100," and one report gives the June 2 timestamp for transfers, while other pieces omit that specific date.

The filings come as both companies press discovery in a trade-secrets case that, according to the reporting, has prompted forensic examinations and competing document requests between the parties.

The public record summarized in coverage shows confirmed assertions by OpenAI in its court filing and clear denials from Apple; none of the articles in this pack report an independent, third-party verification that Apple accessed or used the alleged files, nor do they report any admission by the former employee.

The dispute centers on competing claims about recruitment, employee hires and whether confidential engineering information moved between the firms; OpenAI’s filing says its hardware ambitions explain why the company views employee departures as a present commercial risk.

Coverage notes the procedural posture: these allegations are presented inside litigation documents and reflect positions taken in court discovery rather than adjudicated findings.

Readers should treat the competing statements as litigated claims: OpenAI asserts transfers and presentations to Apple executives, and Apple rejects those assertions and says it has not found evidence supporting them.