Palo Alto startup building ultra dexterous humanoid robot hands, founded in September 2024 by Jay Li and Jianxiang Xu, both former Tesla Optimus engineers. Y Combinator backed. Tesla filed a trade secrets lawsuit against the company in June 2025.
Proception AI is a Palo Alto-based robotics startup developing dexterous robotic hands for humanoid robots and advanced automation. Founded in 2024 by former Tesla Optimus engineers Jay Li and Jianxiang Xu, the company focuses on solving robotic manipulation through precision hardware, rapid iteration, and scalable data collection rather than building a complete humanoid platform from the outset. Its technology combines high-performance robotic hands with AI-driven learning pipelines that generate the manipulation data needed to train future humanoid systems. By treating dexterity as the foundation of embodied intelligence, Proception AI aims to enable robots to perform increasingly complex real-world tasks across industrial and commercial environments.
Platform maturity, autonomy stack, and flagship-system specifications in one view.
A concise view of platform maturity and deployment footprint.
In June 2025, Tesla filed a trade secrets lawsuit accusing Li of downloading confidential Optimus hand designs before departure. Proception continues development despite the legal challenges.
Proception AI was founded in September 2024 by Jay Li and Jack Xu, both former Tesla Optimus engineers. Less than a week after Li left Tesla, Proception was incorporated.
With ~5 people, the founders built a functional humanoid hand prototype in four months. The ProHand 1.0 integrates high-resolution touch sensors with five articulated fingers.
Accepted into Y Combinator, Proception raised $500,000 in pre-seed in March 2025 and published benchmarks claiming superiority over Shadow Hand, Allegro Hand, and others.
In June 2025, Tesla filed a trade secrets lawsuit accusing Li of downloading confidential Optimus hand designs before departure. Proception continues development despite the legal challenges.
Proception AI is a Palo Alto startup building dexterous humanoid hands as the entry point to broader humanoid automation. Founded in 2024 by former Tesla Optimus engineers Jay Li and Jianxiang Xu, the Y Combinator-backed company focuses on high-precision manipulation, fast iteration, and data-collection workflows designed to scale beyond a single research prototype.
