Apple has uncovered a shocking betrayal—Chinese citizen Di Liu stole thousands of proprietary Vision Pro documents in the final days before defecting to competitor Snap, after deliberately lying about his reasons for leaving.
Key Takeaways
- Apple filed a lawsuit against former employee Di Liu for allegedly stealing thousands of proprietary documents related to Vision Pro technology before joining competitor Snap
- Liu claimed he was leaving Apple for health and family reasons while he had already accepted a job at Snap, deliberately delaying Apple’s security protocols
- Documents were systematically selected, renamed, and reorganized before being transferred to personal cloud storage, showing intentional theft
- Liu, a Chinese citizen residing in San Jose, could potentially use Apple’s trade secrets at Snap, which makes competing AR Spectacles products
- Apple is seeking damages and a forensic examination of Liu’s devices to ensure deletion of all stolen information
Deliberate Deception and Theft
The tech giant filed its lawsuit against Di Liu in Santa Clara County Superior Court on June 24, revealing a disturbing pattern of deception. According to court documents, Liu told Apple he was resigning on October 30, 2024, supposedly “to spend more time with his family and take care of his health,” as Di Liu claimed. This health-related excuse prevented Apple from immediately revoking his access to sensitive company systems, which is standard protocol when employees leave for competitors.
What Liu didn’t disclose was that he had already accepted a position at Snap, a direct competitor developing augmented reality products similar to Apple’s Vision Pro. Apple only discovered this betrayal later when Liu updated his LinkedIn profile. Their subsequent investigation revealed that Liu had accepted Snap’s job offer by October 18, nearly two weeks before his resignation, and used his remaining time at Apple to systematically steal confidential information.
“Mr. Liu’s actions were deliberate; logs on his Apple-issued work laptop show that Mr. Liu individually selected the folders he copied and, in some cases, renamed and reorganized them after moving them to his personal cloud storage account,” Apple said in the complaint. “Further, Mr. Liu took actions to conceal movement of the files, intentionally deleting files from his Apple-issued work laptop,” declared by Apple.
Stolen Secrets and Potential Damages
While Apple cannot determine the exact content of all downloaded files, the company believes they contain critical information about Vision Pro technology that could benefit Snap’s competing AR Spectacles product line. Liu’s role as a “product design engineer” at Snap raises serious concerns about how this proprietary information might be misused. The documents reportedly contained codenames, technical specifications, product designs, and supply chain details that could give Snap an unfair competitive advantage.
“Worse still, the review of Mr. Liu’s Apple-issued work laptop also shows that while maintaining access to Apple’s Proprietary Information under false pretenses, he used his Apple credentials to exfiltrate thousands of documents containing Proprietary Information from Apple’s secure file storage systems,” stated the iPhone maker’s lawyers.
Apple’s lawsuit seeks unspecified financial damages and demands the return of all stolen documents. The company is also requesting a forensic examination of Liu’s devices to ensure complete deletion of all proprietary information. This aggressive legal approach demonstrates Apple’s commitment to protecting its intellectual property, especially regarding the Vision Pro, which represents years of research and development in the competitive AR/VR market.
Snap’s Response and Pattern of Theft
While Snap is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, the company has distanced itself from Liu’s alleged actions. “We have reviewed the allegations in Apple’s Complaint and have no reason to believe they are related to this individual’s employment or conduct at Snap,” stated a Snap spokesperson.
This case is part of a troubling pattern of intellectual property theft that American tech companies face, particularly involving employees with Chinese citizenship. Liu is identified in court documents as a San Jose resident and Chinese citizen, raising questions about whether sensitive American technology could eventually benefit Chinese competitors. Apple has previously dealt with cases involving former employees accused of sharing secrets with China-linked organizations, highlighting the ongoing challenge of protecting American innovation from foreign exploitation.
President Trump has repeatedly warned about the theft of American intellectual property by China, and this case demonstrates exactly why such concerns are warranted. The systematic way Liu allegedly stole and organized the files shows this was no accidental transfer but rather a calculated effort to misappropriate valuable American technology and potentially transfer it to competitors either domestically or abroad.
