The material stolen by Xiaolang Zhang was linked to Apple’s work on its first-ever automobile, a project that’s been in and out of the headlines for years though never officially confirmed by the company.
The story of Zhang’s involvement with Apple goes back years. He was first hired by the tech giant toward the end of 2015 to work on Apple’s car project — known as Project Titan — as part of a team building software and hardware for the self-driving vehicle. Around the time of his departure from Apple, the company reportedly noticed Zhang behaving in an unusual manner, conduct that prompted it to launch an internal investigation into its former employee to see if anything was amiss. After examining Zhang’s MacBook and work-issued iPhones that he was asked to turn in, the investigating team arrived at the belief that Zhang had likely walked off with confidential data linked to Project Titan.