Tesla Sues Former Employee for Stealing Supercomputer Secrets
Tesla is suing a former employee accused of stealing trade secrets related to the firm's supercomputer project.
The lawsuit claims thermal engineer Alex Yatskov illegally transferred confidential information to his personal computer and returned a "dummy" laptop to cover up the theft, according to Bloomberg.
Yatskov was hired in January to help build a cooling system for Tesla's in-house supercomputer. Known as Project Dojo, the machine is being developed to handle massive amounts of data, used to help enhance the autonomous driving software in its electric vehicles.
The engineer, who quit his Tesla job on May 2, admitted to downloading confidential information, which he allegedly refused to return to the auto company, the complaint said. Yatskov told Bloomberg he wasn't aware of the legal action and declined to comment.
Filed on Friday, May 6, in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, the suit also claims Yatskov falsified his resumé and breached a non-disclosure agreement barring him from disclosing trade secrets.
"This is a case about illicit retention of trade secrets by an employee who, in his short time at Tesla, already demonstrated a track record of lying and then lying again by providing a 'dummy' device to try and cover his tracks," Tesla's complaint said. The company is seeking "compensatory and exemplary damages," as well as an order stopping Yatskov from sharing trade secrets and forcing him to return all proprietary data.
Tesla did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment.
Little is known about the company's Project Dojo supercomputer, first unveiled at Tesla AI Day in August. At its heart is the D1 chip, which can be linked together to create a 9 petaFLOPS training
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