Apple's former vice president of product design, Tang Tan, is at the center of two trade secret theft lawsuits against OpenAI. On July 10, Apple filed suit alleging Tan and another ex-employee stole IP for OpenAI's hardware teams, including a planned AI device. A second suit from startup iy O accuses Tan of corporate espionage involving its AI earbud.

Born in Malaysia and educated at Imperial College London and MIT, Tan joined Apple in 1999. Under hardware executive Dan Riccio, he led teams for the iPod, iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods, rising to VP of iPhone and Apple Watch Product Design by 2017. His name appears on patents for the iPhone's steel bezel, speaker assemblies, and touch-screen designs. He reported to John Ternus before leaving in February 2024.

In December 2023, Tan joined IO Products, a venture by Jony Ive and Sam Altman to design hardware for OpenAI. OpenAI acquired IO in May 2025 for nearly $6.5 billion, making Tan Chief Hardware Officer. He then spearheaded poaching of Apple engineers. The lawsuits allege Tan ordered an iy O device, met its design lead, and that defendant Chang Liu exploited an Apple authentication bug to access corporate data.