As the prospect of AI-powered robots arises as a main technological component of the future, a fierce business war is being waged between the various players in the field.
Now, it arises that Elon Musk’s Tesla is suing one of its former engineers ‘for allegedly stealing trade secrets’ related to its Optimus humanoid robot.
Tesla sued a former engineer with the company’s highly secretive Optimus program, accusing him of stealing confidential information about the humanoid robot and setting up a rival startup https://t.co/Ge4ZrPbQ8N pic.twitter.com/tqUuMISpge
— 海猿 (@guolinwang) June 12, 2025
New York Post reported:
“The defendant is Zhongjie ‘Jay’ Li, who cofounded the humanoid robot startup Proception Inc. after working at Tesla from Aug. 2022 to Sept. 2024, according to the complaint filed in San Francisco federal court on Wednesday.
The lawsuit alleges Li, who worked on ‘advanced robotic hand sensors—and was entrusted with some of the most sensitive technical data in the program’, downloaded Optimus files onto two smartphones.”
Li started his company ‘Proception’ less than a week after leaving Tesla. He claimed to have built humanoid robot hands equal to Optimus just five months later.
“’Rather than build through legitimate innovation, trial, and technical rigor, Defendants took a shortcut: theft’, the lawsuit says. ‘They misappropriated Tesla’s most sensitive materials, sidestepped the laborious process of development, and launched a company based not on original discovery, but on stolen work’.”
Tesla has sued former engineer Zhongjie “Jay” Li, alleging he stole confidential Optimus-related information to start a rival firm, Proception Inc.
Li, who worked on advanced robotic hand sensors for Optimus, allegedly downloaded sensitive files before leaving Tesla in September… pic.twitter.com/8tufrSNkjD
— The Humanoid Hub (@TheHumanoidHub) June 12, 2025
Tesla wants ‘compensatory and exemplary damages’ against Li, and an order keeping Li and his associates from using the company’s trade secrets.
“’Although Tesla does not disclose the precise year-over-year investments in Optimus, the research and development costs are in the billions of dollars’, the lawsuit says. ‘Such an ambitious project demands unparalleled expertise and substantial time and financial commitment to achieve even incremental progress’.”
According to Musk, the Optimus robot will be key to Tesla’s long-term health and growth.
“’My prediction long-term is that Optimus will be overwhelmingly the value of the company’, Musk said at the time.”
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