Tesla Sues Former Engineer for Alleged Humanoid Robotics Trade Secret Theft

Tesla has filed a lawsuit against its former engineer, Zhongjie “Jay” Li, for alleged theft of trade secrets related to the company’s humanoid robotics program, Optimus. The lawsuit was filed on June 11, 2025.

In the court documents, Tesla accuses Li of stealing trade secret information related to the development of advanced robotic hand sensors, which were later used to establish a competing startup called Proception. The startup is known to be supported by Y Combinator and focuses on the development of robotic hands.

Li worked at Tesla from August 2022 to September 2024. According to the lawsuit, he downloaded confidential Optimus data to his two personal phones. Tesla also claims that in the last months of his employment, Li researched humanoid robot hands using the office computer and conducted searches on venture capital and startup funding sources.

“Less than a week after he left Tesla, Proception was incorporated,” the complaint states, cited from a Tech Crunch report on June 12. “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 official Proception website mentions that the company is seeking to revolutionize human-robot interaction by building the “most advanced humanoid hands” in the world.