OpenAI has been sued by Apple, which accuses it of poaching over 400 former Apple employees and stealing trade secrets. Meanwhile, Bloomberg has revealed that OpenAI’s first hardware product is a screenless, portable AI smart speaker, expected to launch in 2027 at a price of $200 to $300. Chinese companies in Apple’s supply chain, such as Goertek, have already appeared on OpenAI’s supplier list. The talent and supply chain ecosystem Apple has cultivated over two decades are helping OpenAI accelerate its entry into the consumer electronics market, while companies in Apple’s supply chain aim to leverage the AI wave to find new customers beyond Apple.

Article author and source: Blue Letter Project

Poaching or mutual attraction?

An AI speaker that hasn't been officially released may now serve as a crucial piece of evidence in a courtroom battle between two Silicon Valley giants.

Three years after announcing its entry into AI hardware, OpenAI has finally revealed details of its first consumer-grade hardware product. According to the latest report from Bloomberg, it is a mobile, screenless smart speaker.

At the same time, OpenAI was sued by Apple. According to Apple’s 40-page complaint, OpenAI has repeatedly poached talent from Apple over the years in pursuit of its hardware ambitions.

Meanwhile, GoerTek, one of the major players in Apple’s supply chain known for producing countless iconic products, also appears in OpenAI’s hardware ecosystem.

As early as September 2025, media reports indicated that OpenAI began reaching out to China’s consumer electronics supply chain, including Luxshare Precision and Goertek.

Over the past two decades, Apple has built the world’s most mature consumer electronics supply chain, enabling a number of Chinese companies to become major forces in global manufacturing.

Today, as OpenAI begins developing its first-generation AI hardware, these former suppliers that once stood behind Apple are now standing beside OpenAI.

How did Apple’s hard-earned talent and supply chain become a shortcut for OpenAI’s entry into hardware?

On July 10, after winning its lawsuit against Musk, OpenAI didn’t celebrate for long.

Apple filed a 40-page complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, suing OpenAI and two former Apple employees, Chang Liu and Tang Yew Tan.

Apple has directly targeted OpenAI's hardware plans this time.

According to the complaint, over the past few years, OpenAI has consistently poached employees from Apple, with more than 400 former Apple employees joining OpenAI, many of whom came from its hardware team.

However, personnel movement alone doesn't indicate anything—it's what these individuals did after leaving that matters.

Apple alleges that after his departure, Chang Liu exploited an authentication vulnerability to continue downloading company confidential files; Tang Yew Tan sent Apple’s supplier information to himself before leaving.

The complaint also contains some more contentious details.

According to Apple's allegations, OpenAI reportedly asked hardware candidates interviewing with the company to bring Apple components for on-site discussion; OpenAI was also accused of requiring a supplier to use Apple’s confidential metal processing technology.

If these allegations are true, it means the departing employees took a large amount of confidential information to OpenAI, including details about Apple’s product components, manufacturing methods, and supply chain data.

For Apple, which has always regarded product confidentiality as a lifeline, this undoubtedly crosses its most sensitive line. Therefore, it has requested the court to issue an injunction preventing OpenAI from continuing to use or disclose the relevant trade secrets.

OpenAI subsequently responded that the company takes all of Apple's allegations seriously, but has found no evidence to support the claims.

Of course, looking solely at the reason, this still resembles a typical Silicon Valley battle for talent.

But the timing of Apple's intervention was likely carefully planned.

In January this year, Chris Layne, OpenAI’s Head of Global Affairs, stated at the Davos Forum that the company plans to publicly release its first device in the second half of 2026.

Six months later, OpenAI’s first hardware has not yet been officially unveiled, but Apple’s complaint has already been filed, reading somewhat like a preemptive strike.

Over the past three years, OpenAI has been sending a clear signal: it aims to be more than just the world’s leading large model company—it aspires to become a hardware company as well.

Rumors about OpenAI’s hardware—from AI brooches and AI earbuds to AI glasses and AI phones—have never ceased. Last year, OpenAI acquired io Products, founded by Apple’s legendary designer Jony Ive, for approximately $6.5 billion.

This transaction is the largest acquisition since OpenAI's founding and is widely seen as a major step into the consumer electronics market.

Shortly after, OpenAI partnered with peripheral brand Work Louder to launch the Codex Micro programmable keyboard for developers—the first time it put its name on a physical product.

Clearly, Apple is more concerned that OpenAI may one day become a significant player in the consumer electronics market, rather than poaching talent.

Just days after this lawsuit erupted, Bloomberg's report further substantiated Apple's concerns.

According to the latest report from Bloomberg, the OpenAI AI product that the market has been speculating about for three years is actually a screenless, mobile AI companion device—or essentially an AI smart speaker:

Of course, the concept of an AI smart speaker has long been commonplace and unoriginal; from its appearance, OpenAI’s product has nothing particularly noteworthy.

However, internally at OpenAI, it was given extremely high expectations and defined as "a new type of home computing device for the AI era," with the goal of becoming a new computing gateway.

According to Bloomberg, this product is still in development, with an expected price range of $200 to $300, and could be available as early as 2027.

Past smart speakers largely followed a "one-question, one-answer" interaction logic. Users issued commands, the system identified keywords, and then invoked predefined programs to respond. Whether it was Siri or Alexa, these systems struggled to understand extended context and could not engage in continuous, human-like conversations.

OpenAI wants to start changing from here.

Last week, OpenAI released the new GPT Live voice model—the capability many believe will serve as the device's core "soul."

GPT Live supports full-duplex real-time voice interaction. In short, the model continuously determines when to speak, when to listen, when to pause naturally, and when to respond to user interruptions.

Put simply, past voice assistants worked like walkie-talkies: you finish speaking, then it responds. GPT Live aims to replicate the experience of two people having a face-to-face conversation, where both can interrupt, pause, or even speak at the same time.

When faced with complex issues, the system can silently invoke GPT-5.5 in the background to perform searches, reasoning, and calculations, while maintaining continuous voice interaction on the front end, eliminating the awkward silence that previously occurred when voice assistants were processing.

This device is also set to include a camera and multiple environmental sensors, enabling the AI to see the user and their surroundings.

Most remarkably, Bloomberg also mentioned that OpenAI is testing movable mechanical structures to make the device behave more like a responsive companion when interacting.

In other words, it looks like a speaker, but what it’s really selling is a “ChatGPT with a body.”

In the past, ChatGPT always remained confined to computer and phone screens; OpenAI is now trying to let it leave the screen and enter real rooms.

However, an AI that can respond at any time places higher demands on hardware.

When the speaker is talking, the microphone must still clearly pick up the user’s voice. If not handled properly, it will only hear its own speaker output and may fail to respond even if the user shouts, “Stop.”

In the kitchen, the range hood, running water, and clattering pots and pans can interfere with audio; in the living room, TV sounds, music, and voices from a few meters away may also blend together.

In other words, the model can determine what the AI says, but it still requires a high-quality acoustic system to give this speaker highly sensitive hearing.

That’s why OpenAI needs a partner with experience in manufacturing headphones, speakers, microphones, and wearable devices—and the ability to fit all these components into a single chassis.

This also explains why Goertek appears on OpenAI’s supplier list.

In fact, delivering hundreds of thousands of products with a consistent user experience to consumers is precisely the capability that GoerTek has built up over many years.

Over the past two decades, GoerTek has been a key supplier to Apple, consistently involved in the production of products such as AirPods, HomePod, and Apple Watch, and has accumulated extensive expertise in areas including micro-speakers, MEMS microphones, far-field audio capture, acoustic algorithms, and smart wearable manufacturing.

For OpenAI’s voice-interactive device, these capabilities align almost point for point.

AirPods and HomePod involve accumulating capabilities in audio reception, playback, and echo processing; the Apple Watch tests how to fit batteries, sensors, and other components into a limited space; projects like the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses and Xiaomi AI glasses have enabled GoerTek to gain experience with cameras, environmental sensing, and always-on voice interaction.

OpenAI possesses globally leading large models, but has almost no experience in mass-producing consumer electronics. Precision manufacturing, quality control, and supply chain management cannot be instantly made up for simply by hiring a group of engineers from Apple.

What China's tech supply chain possesses is a complete set of industrial capabilities, from rapid prototyping to large-scale mass production.

Over the past two decades, Apple has built the world’s most advanced consumer electronics supply chain through the iPhone, enabling companies such as Luxshare, Goertek, and Lens Technology to grow into world-class manufacturers.

For OpenAI, which is eager to turn AI from software into hardware, directly leveraging this established system can save significant time otherwise spent sourcing components, coordinating with factories, and testing production lines.

From the perspective of companies in the Apple supply chain, taking on OpenAI projects also aligns with business logic.

For a long time, the "Apple supply chain" has been both a prestigious badge and a sign that a company's orders are vulnerable to reliance on Apple as a single customer and the cyclical nature of the smartphone market.

Today, Goertek is expanding its smart hardware, XR devices, and AI terminal businesses; Luxshare Precision is seeking new orders driven by AI hardware; and Lens Technology is continuing to invest heavily in new areas such as AI terminals.

They learned from Apple how to manufacture the world’s most sophisticated consumer electronics, and now naturally want to sell this capability to more customers.

OpenAI and China’s tech supply chain have thus engaged in a mutually beneficial partnership.

On one side is a globally leading AI company seeking to leverage a mature manufacturing system to bring its models into the real world; on the other side are a group of manufacturing companies that grew up within Apple’s ecosystem, aiming to use the AI wave to find new customers beyond Apple.

This is also the most intriguing aspect of the entire matter.

Apple is concerned about OpenAI entering the hardware market, so it has sued OpenAI; meanwhile, the talent Apple has cultivated over two decades and its Chinese supply chain are helping OpenAI accelerate its entry into the consumer electronics market.

For OpenAI, it needs the manufacturing capabilities left behind by Apple; for China’s Apple supply chain, what they’re seeking is no longer just the next order, but the next era.

Reference materials:

JiGuo Network: "No Screen, Mobile, Capable of Chatting? OpenAI’s First Hardware Revealed—Already Sued by Apple Before Launch..."

Yicai: "OpenAI's First Hardware Officially Confirmed! Launching This Year"