Member-only story
Apple Is Suing OpenAI. An Engineer Wrote “LOL, I Can Still Access the Server.” That Quote Is Now in a Federal Lawsuit.
Over 400 former Apple engineers now work at OpenAI. Two are named defendants.
One walked out with a company MacBook and kept downloading confidential hardware files for weeks. Here is what the lawsuit says.
— -
The engineer’s name is Chang Liu.
On his last day at Apple, he did not return his work MacBook. He kept his credentials.
He kept his access to Apple’s internal network storage — the file servers that hold the hardware designs, chip architecture documents, and manufacturing specs for Apple’s unreleased products.
After he had already started at OpenAI, he downloaded confidential files from Apple’s servers.
And then — apparently finding this amusing — he wrote to a colleague: “LOL, I found out I can access the [network storage].”
That message is now a quoted exhibit in a federal lawsuit.
Apple filed suit in the Northern District of California on June 14, 2026, against OpenAI and several named individuals.
The complaint alleges trade secret misappropriation under the [Defend Trade Secrets Act](https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/1890), unfair business practices under California law, and breach of contract.
