Tesla sues former employee for allegedly stealing trade secrets to launch rival startup

Tesla has filed a lawsuit against former engineer Zhongjie ‘Jay’ Li and his startup, Proception Inc, accusing him of stealing confidential information from its humanoid robot project, Optimus. The Elon Musk-led company filed the complaint in a federal court in San Francisco on Wednesday.

Li worked at the EV maker between August 2022 and September 2024. According to the complaint, in the weeks leading up to his departure, he transferred files related to Optimus onto two personal smartphones and soon after launched his own company.

The lawsuit claims that during his final months at Tesla, Li was researching “humanoid robotic hands” on his work computer and also searched online for venture capital and startup funding opportunities.


“Less than a week after he left Tesla, Proception was incorporated,” the complaint states. “And within just five months, Proception publicly claimed to have ‘successfully built’ advanced humanoid robotic hands -hands that bear a striking resemblance to the designs Li worked on at Tesla.”

The development was first reported by Bloomberg.

The legal move comes amid an internal leadership shake-up at Tesla’s Optimus division. Milan Kovac recently announced that he would be stepping down as vice president of engineering. Bloomberg reported that Ashok Elluswamy, who currently heads Tesla's autopilot teams, will take over Kovac’s role.