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…