Apple Tells Court OpenAI Employee Used Confidential Circuit Schematic

Apple Inc. told a federal court on August 31, 2026 that a former senior electrical engineer now working at OpenAI downloaded a confidential circuit schematic and used it in his OpenAI work, citing a forensic inspection of a MacBook his attorneys handed over on August 21, 2026. The allegations appear in a supplemental brief filed in the Northern District of California as part of Apple’s push for expedited discovery in its trade secret lawsuit.

The New Forensic Allegations

According to Apple’s supplemental brief, Chang Liu downloaded the file — which contains the circuit schematic for a power-converter circuit along with simulation input data for modeling the circuit’s operating modes — from Apple’s third-party cloud storage on March 7, 2026, after leaving Apple for OpenAI in January 2026. Apple said the circuit is used in or under consideration for Apple products and is highly confidential.

The forensic analysis found that on March 18, 2026, Liu used the file to run a simulation in LTspice, an electrical engineering tool used to develop and analyze electronic circuits, under the user profile “changliu.” The simulation produced at least three output files that were uploaded to Liu’s iCloud account from a separate computer, a Mac Mini, and both the circuit file and the outputs were synchronized to the MacBook on April 11, 2026, when Liu signed into his iCloud account on that device.

Apple’s brief also quotes messages it attributes to Liu from around the same period, in which he described “feeling AI all day long” at OpenAI and wrote that his AI “agent learned how to run LTspice and look at result, tune compensation parameter.” The filing quotes him describing power conversion development work in which a task that previously took a day now took two hours, with a recipient responding, “Oh man! Why do they even need you then?”

Cloud Access and Evidence-Handling Claims

Apple further alleged that Liu knew his access to Apple’s third-party cloud storage remained active in early April 2026 and continued to access and download files through the end of that month, conduct Apple said is inconsistent with the defendants’ position that the downloads resulted from inadvertent device syncing unknown to him.

The brief also alleges that in June 2026, after learning of Apple’s internal investigation, Liu exchanged messages with OpenAI colleague Yu-Ting (“Alyssa”) Peng in which he told her to have Apple-issued devices “restored” and to then “start using” them more. Apple characterized deliberately restoring and then using a device as “anti-forensic” conduct that overwrites forensic artifacts and evidence. In addition, the filing states that while working at OpenAI, Liu referred to using a tool and related software packages with names identical to proprietary internal engineering tools used at Apple.

Procedural Posture and Next Steps

The supplemental brief was submitted through an unopposed administrative motion seeking leave to file it in support of Apple’s pending motion for expedited discovery. In a supporting declaration, Apple attorney Gabriel Gross stated that Liu’s counsel delivered the MacBook to Charles River Associates, which employs Apple’s forensic expert Daniel Roffman, on August 21, 2026, and that Roffman began reporting preliminary findings on August 26, 2026. Gross stated that on August 28, 2026, Apple asked the defendants about Liu’s use of Apple’s trade secret information, and that defense counsel did not provide explanations and said they had not inspected the MacBook or the forensic image they made of it before returning it.

Under the parties’ stipulation, defendants may file a five-page response on September 4, 2026, and the expedited-discovery motion is set for hearing on October 1, 2026 before Judge Edward J. Davila. The case, filed July 10, 2026, names Liu, Tang Yew Tan, OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC, and io Products as defendants.

OpenAI has moved to dismiss the complaint and opposed expedited discovery. In a public response posted on August 3, 2026, OpenAI said Apple’s outside lawyers initially emailed the wrong person, that Apple employees had asked Liu for help locating information after he left, and that residual file access stemmed from Apple failing to properly manage system access for departing employees. “We do not have, nor want, any of their trade secrets,” OpenAI stated.