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How Apple’s big lawsuit could disrupt OpenAI’s IPO plans | Equity Podcast

Apple filed a trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI 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 has been carefully hedged, and the…

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Apple filed a trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI 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 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 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?
Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, 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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2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. @cfshifflett2

    July 17, 2026 at 2:37 pm

    24/7 audio surveillance by a DOD contractor? Who wouldn’t want that?

  2. @lilhaxxor

    July 18, 2026 at 3:31 am

    This is too slow. I can’t spend 30 minutes listening to this, when the story has been covered elsewhere.

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Science & Technology

This Startup Aims to Put Nuclear Reactors on Floating Barges

Just two months after it emerged from stealth, Bluecore Energy raised another $50M for its mission to put small nuclear reactors on floating barges. The company says the portable plants could deliver clean power to ports, data centers and communities, pending review by the NRC and Coast Guard.

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Just two months after it emerged from stealth, Bluecore Energy raised another $50M for its mission to put small nuclear reactors on floating barges.

The company says the portable plants could deliver clean power to ports, data centers and communities, pending review by the NRC and Coast Guard.

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Science & Technology

How will Anthropic’s CEO “pace the frontier” of AI? It’s still a mystery

AI leaders are suddenly talking about “pacing the frontier,” but the specifics are still pretty fuzzy. Equity breaks down why we’re skeptical that the AI industry is actually headed for a slowdown, even as leaders at Anthropic and OpenAI say they want to put the brakes on.

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AI leaders are suddenly talking about “pacing the frontier,” but the specifics are still pretty fuzzy.

Equity breaks down why we’re skeptical that the AI industry is actually headed for a slowdown, even as leaders at Anthropic and OpenAI say they want to put the brakes on.

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Science & Technology

Dario Amodei and other AI leaders want to ‘Pace the Frontier’ but…how? | Equity Podcast

A week after an Anthropic researcher’s doomsday warning rattled the AI world, the company’s CEO Dario Amodei has outlined his plan to “pace the frontier” of AI development. The proposal leans on independent safety evaluators and coordination between AI labs in democratic countries, and it’s already picked up some industry support, along with some pointed…

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A week after an Anthropic researcher’s doomsday warning rattled the AI world, the company’s CEO Dario Amodei has outlined his plan to “pace the frontier” of AI development. The proposal leans on independent safety evaluators and coordination between AI labs in democratic countries, and it’s already picked up some industry support, along with some pointed pushback from Nvidia’s Jensen Huang.

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into whether companies can agree on what slowing down means and who gets to police it. Plus, WordPress parent Automattic’s boardroom coup, and a couple of the week’s biggest deals.

Subscribe to Equity on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro

1:00 Dario Amodei’s plan to “pace the frontier”

5:03 Jensen Huang pushes back

9:08 Can market forces alone keep AI safe?

12:30 Third-party evaluators: how would they actually work?

15:27 Automattic’s board tries to oust Matt Mullenweg

19:31 Comparing it to OpenAI’s “the blip”

22:54 What’s at stake in who controls WordPress

24:04 May Mobility’s SPAC deal

28:42 Are SPACs back?

29:34 DoorDash invests $425M in Wonder

33:45 Outro

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