Apple has sued OpenAI and two former employees on Friday, accusing them of trade secret theft amid simmering tensions between the two tech giants over the past few months. The lawsuit filed in federal court in Northern California underscored the Tim Cook-led Big Tech firm alleging that the ChatGPT maker orchestrated a scheme to systematically acquire and exploit Apple’s confidential information through former employees and other efforts to develop its own consumer hardware. This latest development marks a dramatic escalation of the tiff that began to take shape when OpenAI announced plans to enter the hardware industry last year. At the time, the Sam Altman-led artificial intelligence startup bought Jony Ive’s startup, IO Products (also named in the lawsuit), for $6.4 billion. OpenAI has since denied the allegations and insisted on Friday that it had “no interest in other companies’ trade secrets”.