• Markets: Between new inflation numbers and the start of earnings season, investors will get all of the data they can handle this week (more on that later).
• Stock spotlight: Despite some negative headlines, Meta closed nearly 6% higher on Friday. That capped off its best week in more than two years, erasing its year-to-date losses, as investors seemed convinced the company may still have an AI story to tell.

Apple jacked?

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Apple’s former employees may not be falling far enough away from the tree, at least according to the company’s new lawsuit against OpenAI. The suit, filed in federal court on Friday, accused the startup of systematically leveraging its former employees as part of a broad, coordinated effort to steal trade secrets.

What does the lawsuit allege?

Apple said “every level” of OpenAI was involved in the scheme, but a lot of the lawsuit centers on Tang Tan, a former Apple VP and OpenAI’s current chief hardware officer, who is accused of getting Apple employees to share company secrets while they interviewed for jobs at OpenAI.

Apple turnover: If Apple employees did leave for OpenAI, the ChatGPT maker gave them advice on how to avoid immediately being removed from the company, so they could stay on for a couple more weeks to access Apple’s internal systems and trade secrets, the suit alleged.

Apple said it has 400+ former employees now working at OpenAI, including engineer Chang Liu, who was named as a defendant in the lawsuit alongside OpenAI, Tan, and io Products, the company founded by former Apple design guru Jony Ive. According to Apple, Liu:

• Stole a company laptop.
• Continued to obtain internal information from then-Apple employee Alyssa Peng (who also later joined OpenAI).
• Messaged Peng, “LOL, I found out I can access the [network storage], so funny,” and then downloaded presentations and manufacturing details, Bloomberg reported.

Apple is seeking damages and wants OpenAI to destroy any proprietary materials, saying the startup’s hardware business is “rotten to its core.” (Unclear whether the apple wordplay was intended.)

OpenAI denied the charges. A spokesperson for the startup said it has “no interest in other companies’ trade secrets” and that it remains “focused on building innovative technology that empowers people everywhere.”

Familiar foe: Sam Altman’s longtime rival Elon Musk couldn’t resist getting a shot in after the allegations dropped, calling the OpenAI CEO “Scam Altman” on X. Altman responded by criticizing Musk’s SpaceX and calling him “homeboy” in the process, proving that tech titans are just like us, only with lamer insults.—BC

      

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Sen. Lindsey Graham in 2022. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images