Apple’s Lawsuit Could Choke OpenAI’s iPhone Rival Before It Even Ships

Apple’s trade secret lawsuit against OpenAI is going to make life a lot harder for the AI company’s hardware team, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

For now, the timeline hasn’t moved. A person with knowledge of the matter says OpenAI still expects to announce its first hardware product later this year and ship it in 2027. But that could change once executives get a full read on what Apple is actually claiming.

The first product is already well along in development, a source says, but building out a whole family of devices just got a lot tougher. OpenAI eventually wants to take on the iPhone directly. Something simpler and non-phone is expected to launch first.

Hiring is the other problem, as analysts and industry watchers say the lawsuit will likely spook Apple employees who were thinking about jumping ship. Even sitting down for an interview at OpenAI could now put someone under a microscope with Apple’s leadership.

People familiar with the situation say OpenAI’s engineering culture will have to get a lot more careful as well. Ex-Apple staff may not want to talk about what they worked on before, and managers will probably steer clear of specific technical questions to avoid handing Apple more ammunition.

As for the supply chain, Gurman says sources point out that the pool of high-end consumer device suppliers in Asia is pretty small, and those manufacturers may think twice about getting closer to OpenAI if it puts their Apple business at risk.

Bloomberg Intelligence wrote in a note on Monday that Apple is very likely to win some targeted preliminary relief. That would mean a court order forcing OpenAI to wall off the disputed materials and certify it has done so, which would slow the hardware work down further.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has already weighed in on X recently, saying, “i am not afraid of apple, but i have tremendous respect for them. s-tier company.”