Apple sues ‘stealth mode’ startup Rivos of stealing chip secrets

Apple is suing  Rivos, a “startup in stealth mode”, for poaching engineers in stealing trade secrets and information on its chips.

The lawsuit stated that over the past year, Rivos had hired 40 of Apple’s own employees working on its chip technology, and 2 former Apple engineers, namely Bhasi Kaithamana and Ricky Wen had stolen gigabytes of sensitive and confidential SoC information on its M1 and A15 chip.

The stolen information was stated to have been taken through the use of USB drives and AirDrop into the employees’ own personal devices. Furthermore, Apple believes that the use of encrypted messages between compromised employees and Rivos was done, and those who participated had wiped out their Apple devices in order to leave no traces of evidence.

“Stealth mode” startup Rivos, which was founded to design and market its own competing SoCs, has filled out its ranks with dozens of former Apple engineers. Starting in June 2021, Rivos began a coordinated campaign to target Apple employees with access to Apple proprietary and trade secret information about Apple’s SoC designs. Apple promptly sent Rivos a letter informing Rivos of the confidentiality obligations of Apple’s former employees, but Rivos never responded.

It is understandable why Apple choice to sue them stating that they do in fact value competition and innovation. However, they expounded on the fact that competition cannot be built upon the theft of one’s own trade secret. We will see how this story develops going forward.

What do you think of a company trying to steal Apple’s trade secret for their chips? Let us know what you think down in the comments!