When Apple filed its blockbuster trade-secrets lawsuit against OpenAI on July 10, the 40-page complaint went after ex-Apple hardware boss Tang Tan by name, accused a former engineer of downloading confidential files on a company laptop he never returned, and alleged a coordinated scheme to poach talent and secrets. Yet one name is conspicuously absent from the filing: Jony Ive, the legendary designer who now shapes OpenAI’s hardware and who once gave Apple the iPhone, iPod and iPad.That omission isn’t an accident. In his latest Power On newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman lays out why Apple deliberately kept its former design chief out of the crosshairs, even though Ive founded io Products, the studio OpenAI bought for $6.5 billion and the very outfit at the center of the dispute. The answer runs from the practical to the deeply personal, and it says as much about Silicon Valley’s tangled relationships as it does about the law.
Jony Ive stayed clean because he wasn’t running OpenAI hardware operations
The straightforward reason, per Gurman, is that Ive had little to do with the alleged misconduct. While Ive is the public face and creative visionary behind OpenAI’s device push, he isn’t running recruiting, engineering or day-to-day operations. That work sits with Tan, OpenAI’s chief hardware officer and a 24-year Apple veteran who led design for the Apple Watch before leaving.The lawsuit’s spiciest allegations, coaching Apple recruits on dodging exit-security checks, asking candidates to bring parts and prototypes for “show and tell” interview sessions, all point to Tan and others directly. Ive, by contrast, wasn’t the one sending those messages. Apple, it seems, found no evidence tying him to any of it, which makes leaving him out the easy call.
Laurene Powell Jobs is the relationship Apple can’t afford to strain
The second reason is all about optics, and it leads straight to Laurene Powell Jobs. Ive is considered one of her closest friends in Silicon Valley, close enough that he delivered a tribute at Steve Jobs‘ 2011 memorial. She was also an investor in io Products and remains a LoveFrom supporter.That matters because Powell Jobs still carries weight at Apple. She’s a visible backer of Tim Cook and his successor-in-waiting John Ternus, and the Jobs name shapes how Apple views nearly every big decision. Dragging Ive into a public brawl would strain one of Apple’s most important relationships for very little gain, Gurman notes.There’s the image problem too. Tan isn’t a household name, but Ive spent decades as one of the faces of Apple, and his fingerprints are on every product the company still sells. Going after him directly would likely generate sympathy for Ive while inviting the charge that Apple’s suit is powered by old grievances rather than genuine trade-secret concerns, especially given Apple’s belief that Ive quietly dismantled its design team while still on the payroll as a consultant through 2022.
Discovery could still force Jony Ive onto the witness stand
Keeping Ive’s name out of the complaint doesn’t guarantee he stays out of the fight. Once the case reaches discovery, Apple loses control over who gets pulled in. Given Ive’s role founding io and overseeing the hardware program at the heart of the dispute, OpenAI could argue he has relevant knowledge and put him on the stand to make things awkward for his former employer.It wouldn’t be his first Apple-related deposition. Ive testified back in 2012 during Apple’s patent war with Samsung, fielding questions about the company’s design process and early iPhone prototypes. This time, though, he’d be on the opposite side, a scenario that could strain his carefully maintained ties to Cupertino.For now, Apple appears to have judged that it can inflict plenty of damage on OpenAI’s hardware ambitions through Tan alone, without the reputational blowback of naming the man who helped build the modern Apple.
