Apple’s former vice president of product design, Tang Tan, is at the center of two trade secret theft lawsuits against OpenAI. Here’s who he is, how he got started, and why he is crucial to OpenAI’s future.

On July 10, Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that two former Apple employees stole its intellectual property. The trade secrets would allegedly be used by OpenAI’s hardware teams to produce new products, including a planned AI device.

One name stands out prominently in the affair. Tang Tan is a major figure, partly because of his position at Apple and at OpenAI, and from his alleged activities that prompted the lawsuit.

This is the backstory of a man who, if the lawsuit is to be believed, has caused a potentially very costly problem for OpenAI.

Early career

Born in Malaysia, Tang Tan’s education first took place at the prestigious Imperial College London, completing his undergraduate studies. In an October 2025 MIT talk, Tan admits that he initially considered working in a shipyard at the time.

While that could’ve led to a wildly different career, he instead went to MIT and earned his master’s in mechanical engineering in 1999. While he focused largely on industry automation for his master’s, he shifted to working on semiconductors before graduation.

The move led to an interview with Apple as a graduate, and he stood out by telling interviewers that he wanted to become a project leader. He was ultimately hired in 1999.

He was given his chance to lead two years into his tenure at Apple, appointed by hardware executive Dan Riccio. His success in the roll led to him working across the company on various projects in his early years.

Tan refers to the time as being the “young kid who got thrown into all these projects during firefighting.” He was employed to fix problems in projects, rather than to lead them.

Major BTS work

Tan is able to claim a hand in the development of multiple major products at Apple throughout his career.

One early example was in the early 2000s, when he worked on the team developing the iPod. The team found a 1.8-inch Toshiba hard drive that could store up to 100 times more songs than other devices on the market, making it a must-have in a new music player.

The team went on to devise the first iPod design.

An early iPod design that Tan had a hand in making.

History would repeat itself with the iPhone, with Tan involved in leading the team to its creation. He eventually became the vice president of product design for iPhone and Apple Watch at the company, further leading the design teams to make new versions of the wearable, smartphone, and even AirPods.

His job titles have included Senior Product Designer for iPod for three years, Manager for Wireless Product Design, for a year, and Senior Manager then Director of iPhone Product Design for six years in total. He became Senior Director of iPhone and Apple Watch Product Design for five years.

Eventually, in March 2017, he became Vice President of iPhone and Apple Watch Product Design, and stayed in the role for seven years.

His name is attached to multiple patents, including a 2010 one for the steel bezel design of the iPhone. Others have included speaker assemblies, touch screen designs, ejectable SIM card assemblies, and even anodizing techniques.

Despite his role and apparent important position, little is really known about Tan at this time. He resided in a place in the corporate ladder where he had influence, but was not picked to be in the limelight, unlike other executives with similar seniority and positioning within the company.

A steel bezel design patent image connected to Tan

At the end of his tenure, Tan was working directly under John Ternus, then the senior vice president of hardware engineering. Ternus will become the CEO of Apple in the fall.

Tan stayed at Apple until February 2024, with news of the departure leaking two months prior. Apple quickly shifted Tan’s duties to others in the transition, passing control of iPhone and Apple Watch designs to colleagues Richard Dinh and Kate Bergeron.

IO and OpenAI

It didn’t take long for the rumor mill to work out where Tan was headed after Apple. In December 2023, before he had left Cupertino, it was revealed that he was heading to work at a new startup called IO Products.

This move wasn’t one where he joined a small, typical startup. IO turned out to be a collaboration between former Apple design chief Jony Ive and AI giant OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman, with the intention of designing hardware for OpenAI to manufacture and sell.

Tan was put in charge of hardware engineering for the project. This was ideal for the project, considering Tan’s development history.

A few years later, IO Products was sold to OpenAI in a deal valued at close to $6.5 billion in May 2025. The 55 employees at IO joined OpenAI, including Tan.

As part of that purchase, Tan became the Chief Hardware Officer at OpenAI.

Jony Ive and Sam Altman, who work with Tan at IO – Image Credit: OpenAI

This role puts Tan at the top of the tree when it comes to OpenAI’s rumored hardware devices, alongside Ive and Altman. However, once again, the external communications about the project chiefly concern Ive’s thoughts and opinions, with Tan staying in the background.

The rumors have included OpenAI producing an AI pin-style device, in the same vein as the one from the failing Humane. On July 14, the rumors evolved, with it apparently being a HomePod-style device with a battery and moving parts.

That said, OpenAI is thought to be working on five potential hardware products.

Like other tech companies, OpenAI hasn’t been shy about acquiring talent from elsewhere. This has included attempts to draw engineers from Apple with the promise of million-dollar stock options and a lower level of bureaucracy than their Cupertino counterparts.

In September 2025, Tan was reported as being the person steering the poaching efforts. He claimed that OpenAI offers more freedom, collaboration, and bigger ideas than Apple’s slow updates.

His efforts resulted in OpenAI netting some big fish, including Cyrus Daniel Irani from Apple’s human interface design team and Erik de Jong from Apple Watch hardware. At the time, the scalps also included Matt Theobald, a 17-year Apple veteran in manufacturing design.

Many of the acquired hires went straight into working on OpenAI’s hardware push.

While this made Tan a very busy man, things would become even more stressful within months.

In come the lawsuits

A pair of massive lawsuits have landed at OpenAI’s feet in 2026, so far. Each with Tan’s name appearing in the accusations.

The first came from the company iyO, makers of an AI-enabled earbud. While it initially seemed as if iyO objected to the name, the complaint was amended in March to include trade secret theft and corporate espionage.

The iyO One, which Tan allegedly ordered before an apparent attempt to gain trade secrets. – Image credit: iyO.

In iyO’s timeline, Tan preordered the iyO One 11 days after a viral TED Talk on the device was published, in May 2024. Nine days later, Tan contacted iyO Design and Marketing lead Dan Sargent to schedule a dinner in early June.

Forensic analysis of Sargent’s company notebook in June 2024 showed Sargent had downloaded 33 files, accessed dormant IP folders, and exported 17 CAD files with obfuscated titles.

Sargent later admitted to taking prototypes to show Tan.

Apple jumps in

The second lawsuit was from Apple, filed in June 2026. That too was one about the theft of intellectual property, with Tan again involved in the process alongside defendant Chang Liu.

Liu apparently failed to return Apple-issued hardware after leaving, and allegedly told a colleague that he still had access to Apple’s networks, and was planning to access corporate information. Liu allegedly bragged to a colleague that a bug existed in Apple’s authentication, which he reportedly exploited.

Apple says Liu took dozens of files, including details about unreleased products, engineering presentations, technical specifications, and project data.

The accusations for Tan also revolved around stealing data, but in different ways. He is said to have emailed himself information about Apple suppliers in the months before he departed the company and moved to IO.

He also leveraged his history at Apple and his position at IO to encourage job candidates from Apple to bring unreleased hardware components they worked on to their OpenAI interview.

This helped Tan get more current information about Apple’s projects, as well as details on specific areas. This apparently included batteries, shields, housings, and colored back glass components.

The new hires were also allegedly instructed on how to avoid scrutiny when leaving Apple for OpenAI. This included not telling Apple about the move to OpenAI, and staying at Apple as long as possible before onboarding.

Apple was aware of this because it found messages Tan had sent to Apple-issued work devices, as well as his sharing of a stolen procedural document covering Apple’s security practices.

Suppliers who worked for Apple were also apparently fooled by Tan. At one point, metal finishing techniques were taken from Apple and provided to one supplier, which led to more information being shared.

Not helping OpenAI’s cause is that Apple claims it reached out to discuss precautions that could’ve been taken to fight leaks and the use of stolen information. OpenAI claimed there was an email mixup.

Tan’s prominent appearance in two separate lawsuits concerning IP theft is probably a big concern for OpenAI at this time. It’s something that gets in the way of its hardware development, and can potentially result in the ending of current projects altogether.

If Tan’s actions are deemed illegal by the court in either lawsuit, it will almost certainly be a costly decision for OpenAI. It may even bring an effective end to the tech career of one of Apple’s best behind-the-scenes stars.