apple wwdc24 event announcing partnership with openai
On June 10, 2024, at the WWDC24 event, Apple previewed its new Apple Intelligence for its then-upcoming iOS 18. At the time, Apple was late to the generative AI scene and was desperately trying to upgrade an aging Siri. (That full upgrade of Siri with AI eventually took 2 more years.)
At the time, Apple announced a partnership with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT with Siri’s iPhone capabilities. Craig Federighi demoed what it would look like, using Siri to call up ChatGPT:
But the AI-revamp of Siri got off to a rocky start, with delays and, later, a $250 million settlement of a Apple shareholder lawsuit for Apple’s failed promises to deliver the AI-upgrade to Siri.
OpenAI announces Jony Ive is working on a new AI device in 2025
Then, on July 9, 2025, Sam Altman announced a stunning partnership with Apple’s former head designer Jony Ive, who is revered within Apple circles. OpenAI acquired Ive’s io Products for $6.5 billion.
And Ive was designing a new AI device, which lacked a screen but could be a competitor to the iPhone and other smartphones.
Jan. 2026: apple decides to enlist ai company to revamp siri and chooses google over openai
Meanwhile, by June 2025 and the WWDC 2025, Federighi admitted that Apple’s first attempt to upgrade Siri failed and they were starting anew in building a new, next-gen Siri.
During 2025, Apple was looking to partner with another AI company to build the new, next-gen Siri. Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic were all reported as candidates. But Apple ultimately went with Google, which Apple has partnered with for search on the iPhone. Afterwards, it was also reported that OpenAI decided against working with Apple, although it’s unclear whether that was a face-saving report.
May 2026: Openai expresses desire to break original siri partnership for chatgpt use
By spring 2026, the relationship between Apple and OpenAI has clearly deteriorated. OpenAI reportedly expressed a desire to get out of the original partnership for use of ChatGPT integrated into Siri.
july 2026: Apple sues openai and two former apple employees hired by openai for alleged trade secret theft
Then, on July 10, 2026, Apple declared war on OpenAI. It filed a trade secret theft lawsuit against OpenAI and two former Apple employees hired by OpenAI, Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan.
Oct. 2026: OpenAI turns the tables and considers suing apple
In a recent filing to the court in the above case, OpenAI alleged that a former OpenAI employee, who worked for the company for 6 months before returning to Apple, may have stolen trade secrets of OpenAI’s related to various hardware projects OpenAI is working on.
The filing states: “Based on a recent and ongoing forensic investigation arising from this lawsuit, OpenAI has learned that a former OpenAI employee (who joined OpenAI from Apple, worked for OpenAI for six months, and has now returned to Apple) , sent over a hundred highly confidential files about at least one unreleased OpenAI device under development to his personal accounts. The files at issue include detailed images of the unreleased device(s), as well as highly confidential engineering and manufacturing data about the device(s). The files also include supplier information and project files, standards for cosmetic finishes, and reports regarding coating and sealing of hardware components. Some of those files were sent just after midnight in Singapore on June 2, 2026—the former employee’s final day at OpenAI. Further, it is OpenAI’s understanding that the former employee made a presentation about OpenAI’s product plans to Apple’s senior leadership, including Apple’s vice president of operations in Asia. That presentation appears to have happened months ago—and now, armed with that information, Apple is making a new push into AI-enabled products.1 OpenAI is very concerned that its trade secret and confidential information is now circulating inside Apple, where Apple engineers can shape Apple’s upcoming products based on OpenAI’s confidential and innovative work.
“OpenAI has raised these issues directly with Apple, but to date, Apple has not provided OpenAI with the requested assurances that Apple is not in possession of, and has not used, OpenAI’s trade secret and confidential information. Given the relevance of these issues to discovery in this lawsuit, OpenAI requests the opportunity at the October 14, 2026 Case Management Conference to discuss a case management approach that will allow OpenAI to investigate the conduct described above and, if necessary, file and pursue counterclaims arising out of that conduct.”
Oct. 15, 2026: adding insult to injury, apple makes peace with meta
In addition to Apple’s Siri partnership with Google, Apple also announced a new, surprising partnership with Meta. Mark Zuckerberg, who last year criticized Apple for not making anything innovative in the past 2 decades, formed an alliance with Apple to deploy Meta’s open-weight model on Mac Studios. New Apple CEO John Ternus even co-tweeted the announcement with Zuck.
How it started:
How it’s going:
how will apple-openai war end?
It seems almost unfathomable the relationship between Apple and OpenAI has deteriorated this much in 2 short years. But, based on the timing of events, OpenAI’s partnership with Jony Ive and acquisition of his company to design a new AI device, and potential iPhone competitor, probably didn’t help the Apple-OpenAI partnership.
OpenAI has already survived one major lawsuit filed by Elon Musk, although that case has claims still ongoing.
Can it survive another major lawsuit filed by Apple? Time will tell. Apple has a $5 trillion market cap, second only to NVIDIA for the largest of any public company. The complication for OpenAI is that this isn’t the only war it’s fighting. OpenAI faces predictions that it will face a “funding crisis” by 2027. On top of that, OpenAI faces nearly 120 lawsuits in the United States alone (including the Apple suit); adverse judgments even just a few key cases, such as the one filed by the New York Times, would put considerable financial pressure on OpenAI and potential bankruptcy.
