Sam Altman‘s OpenAI is preparing possible legal action against Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), according to a Bloomberg report Thursday, as the two-year-old ChatGPT partnership frays just weeks before Apple’s biggest AI reveal of the year.

OpenAI lawyers are working with an outside firm on options that could include a breach-of-contract notice, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. A full lawsuit is not the only option on the table.

OpenAI Says Apple Did Not Deliver

The startup believed the 2024 deal that wove ChatGPT into Siri and Apple’s Writing Tools would funnel iPhone users into paid ChatGPT subscriptions.

“We have done everything from a product perspective,” an OpenAI executive told Bloomberg. “They have not, and worse, they haven’t even made an honest effort.”

OpenAI initially believed the arrangement could generate billions of dollars per year in subscription revenue, according to the report. The startup now believes the Apple implementation has hurt OpenAI’s brand.

The tension extends beyond software. OpenAI last year acquired a hardware startup co-founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, and has poached Apple engineers with stock packages worth millions more than Apple offers.

Polymarket Eyes The Ive Device

The “What kind of product will OpenAI announce in 2026?” market has Earbuds/Headphones leading at 31%, Glasses at 27% and a Smartphone at 21%, on more than $258,000 in volume.

Any of those categories would put OpenAI in direct hardware competition with an Apple product line.

The Musk Trial Clock

Any legal move likely will not come until after the conclusion of OpenAI’s trial with Elon Musk, which entered closing arguments Thursday in Oakland with jury deliberations expected next week.

Polymarket gives Musk a 34% chance of winning the case against Altman, on more than $389,000 in volume.

A Musk win would tie up OpenAI’s legal bandwidth and likely delay any move against Apple further.

WWDC Sets The Stage

Apple will unveil iOS 27 at its Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8. Bloomberg reports the update will introduce a new Extensions system that opens Siri up to rival AI providers including Anthropic’s Claude and Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Gemini, ending OpenAI’s unique role inside Apple software.

Apple is separately paying Google roughly $1 billion annually for AI technology to power its underlying models.

Apple is trading around $297, slightly off its all-time high set Wednesday.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Benzinga.

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