Apple's lawsuit couldn't come at a worse time for OpenAI

Apple filed a trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI (techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/the-wildest-allegati…) last Friday, and it's not messing around. The complaint alleges a pattern of misconduct reaching all the way up to OpenAI's chief hardware officer and claims more than 400 former Apple employees now work at the company. OpenAI's response so far (techcrunch.com/2026/07/14/openai-pushes-back-o…) has been carefully hedged, and the timing couldn't be worse with the company reportedly eyeing an IPO as early as later this year.

On this episode of TechCrunch's Equity (techcrunch.com/podcasts/equity) podcast, hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O'Kane dig into what the lawsuit could mean for OpenAI's own hardware ambitions and IPO timeline, plus a bigger theme running through the week's news: how much should anyone trust AI companies with their data?

Listen to the full episode to hear more about:

• Why Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is warning enterprises (techcrunch.com/2026/07/13/satya-nadella-has-is…) about handing data over to AI labs, and whether open source (techcrunch.com/podcast/open-source-ai-matters-…) is really a way out of the “Trojan horse” data-trust problem

• How forward-deployed engineers (techcrunch.com/podcast/inside-ode-with-anthrop…) (FDEs) are changing the relationship between AI labs and their enterprise customers

• Why General Catalyst just handed David Beckham's health drink startup a $1 billion customer value fund (techcrunch.com/2026/07/14/david-beckhams-healt…)

• The scoop on a new $200M drug-discovery startup from an ex-OpenAI researcher (techcrunch.com/2026/07/14/openai-researcher-mi…)

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube (youtube.com/@TechCrunch), Apple Podcasts (itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1215439780), Overcast (overcast.fm/itunes1215439780/equity), Spotify (open.spotify.com/show/5IEYLip3eDppcOmy5DmphC?s…) and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X (twitter.com/EquityPod) and Threads (threads.net/@equitypod), at @EquityPod.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

00:40 Would you want Sam Altman listening to you?

01:53 Apple sues OpenAI over trade secrets

13:24 Satya Nadella's warning: "you're paying twice" with your data

19:03 Open source vs. going deeper with AI labs

24:52 General Catalyst gives David Beckham's health drink startup $1B

30:05 Ex-OpenAI researcher raises $200M for drug discovery startup

32:58 Outro

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