Apple Sued OpenAI. It Left Jony Ive Alone.

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Apple last week sued OpenAI and io Products, an AI hardware firm OpenAI acquired in July 2025.

According to the complaint, Apple alleges everything from former employees stealing trade secrets to OpenAI employees encouraging Apple candidates to bring "actual parts" to interviews for "show and tell."

The suit names iO founder and OpenAI hardware chief (and former Apple VP of product design) Tang Tan, as well as former Apple electrical engineer, and current OpenAI employee, Chang Liu. But it's arguably more notable for the name it leaves out: Jony Ive, an Apple legend and iO cofounder.

Apple isn't subtle in the 41-page complaint, describing a "coordinated pattern of misconduct at an institutional level." In one instance, Tan allegedly, with OpenAI's support, told Apple candidates to bring unreleased, confidential prototypes and components to meetings to "show" what they were working on.

Liu, who left for OpenAI in January, reportedly discovered an authentication bug that left his access to Apple's internal network storage active. "LOL, I found out I can access the [network storage], so funny," Liu wrote to a colleague before allegedly downloading presentations, engineering data, and blueprints for unreleased products.

Apple also alleges OpenAI used stolen supplier information to learn about Apple's metal-finishing technique by lying to a third-party manufacturer and claiming Apple had authorized the use.

It's a bad look for OpenAI, which recently pushed back its IPO date. Multiple reports claim the company won't turn a profit until 2030 or later.

"We have no interest in other companies' trade secrets. We remain focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere," an OpenAI spokesperson told Yahoo Finance.

Yet despite the detailed allegations, Ive — the industrial designer who, alongside Steve Jobs, helped shape Apple's distinctive products — is not named in the suit.

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Ive left Apple in 2019 to form his independent creative collective, LoveFrom. After OpenAI acquired io Products for $6.5 billion, it fueled speculation that Ive could design and launch an AI-focused product, combining top-tier hardware, minimalist design, and social and cultural utility, powered by OpenAI's ChatGPT.

That would be bad for Apple, which, frankly, hasn't released a product people have been excited about in years. It's fair to say Apple hasn't reinvented itself in a revolutionary way since AirPods launched in 2016, three years before Ive left.

Apple's decision not to name Ive doesn't read as fear of the IP it already owns. Instead, it suggests concern that Ive could build the next category-defining aesthetic for someone else, one that competes directly with Apple's products. Nearly every product Apple is known for, like the iPhone, Mac, and iPad, was shaped in part by him.

Going after Ive directly could push him further toward OpenAI, potentially closing off any chance of bringing him back — or buying Apple time to find its own "next Ive" while the lawsuit plays out.

In one way, Apple is already doing this with its next CEO, John Ternus, the company's former Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering.

Ternus has worked at Apple for 25 years, developing everything from the iPad and AirPods to the transition of Macs to Apple Silicon. Ternus likely worked alongside Ive and understands that a product's success isn't just about what it does, but how it's presented—and that its visual and tactile identity must match how it looks and feels.