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Apple Sues OpenAI, States Move to Block Paramount Deal, and McConnell Conspiracy Theories
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Apple Sues OpenAI for Trade Secret Theft
At 33:54 · chapter starts 30:00
The Apple lawsuit arrives as the latest in a cascading series of setbacks for OpenAI. The complaint names an executive called Tan for coaching job candidates to circumvent Apple data security, and engineer Cheng Lu for exploiting a bug to download files. Scott reads the moment in a wider frame: OpenAI's head of safety just resigned, Fiji Simo stepped down from the number-two role citing health, the browser is shelved, and both OpenAI and Anthropic have delayed their IPOs. The demand that was supposed to justify the AI infrastructure buildout never materialized — xAI and Meta have both pivoted from demand to supply mode. Scott's verdict: this is Q3 1999, and the Jony Ive acquisition at $6.5–7 billion will be written off as one of the worst deals in recent memory. The lawsuit, he predicts, gives OpenAI the perfect cover to quietly bury the hardware device. The Elon Musk–Sam Altman Twitter feud gets a side note: Kara argues Sam walked straight into Elon's trap by engaging, making both look like combatants when Elon's villain status is already priced in.
OpenAI's $6.5–7 billion acquisition of Jony Ive's device company will likely be written off entirely. Apple's lawsuit alleging trade-secret theft gives OpenAI the perfect cover to never ship the hardware. Scott Galloway's prediction: the device is never going to happen.
OpenAI and Anthropic have both delayed their IPOs. xAI and Meta have flipped from demand to supply mode. The front-end demand that was supposed to justify the infrastructure buildout never materialized. This is Q3 1999 — and we know what happened next.
Both OpenAI and Anthropic have delayed their IPOs, a signal Scott Galloway reads as evidence the AI industry's demand-side assumptions have fundamentally broken down.
Scott Galloway compared the current AI industry moment to Q3–Q4 of 1999, when dot-com companies collapsed due to insufficient real demand despite genuine technological progress.
OpenAI acquired Jony Ive's device company for $6.5–7 billion — a deal Scott Galloway predicts will be written off almost entirely as one of the worst acquisitions in recent years.
Sam Altman is a visionary who built something extraordinary but isn't the right person to run a complex, cash-burning public company. The Travis-to-Dara playbook is exactly what OpenAI needs — and the longer the board waits, the worse it gets.
