- Rivian trained the employees to share trade secrets from their time at Tesla, according to a new lawsuit.
- Tesla says that at least six former employees, and probably more, disclosed confidential information in their new jobs at the competitor.
- Rivian denies the allegations, saying the alleged actions are “contrary to Rivian’s culture, spirit and corporate policies.”
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
Tesla has accused the electric vehicle startup Rivian of stealing highly confidential trade secrets through newly hired workers.
In a lawsuit filed last week in California, electric car maker Elon Musk accused the Amazon-backed startup and four of its employees of misappropriating trade secrets that violate former employees’ confidentiality agreements.
“Rivian instructed a recently departed Tesla employee about the types of Tesla confidential information Rivian needs,” the Tesla complaint alleges. “Both Rivian and the employee knew very well that taking that information would violate the employee’s confidentiality obligations to Tesla. However, the employee expropriated from Rivian the exact information Rivian was seeking – highly confidential confidential information that would give Rivian a huge advantage. competitive. “
Tesla says it caught the culprits “using newly acquired sophisticated electronic security monitoring tools” and that it expects more employees to be named in the lawsuit as it discovers more theft cases. Altogether, Tesla says that 178 former employees have joined Rivian.
Rivian and the four specific employees named in the lawsuit did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the allegations. In a statement to Bloomberg, the company said the alleged actions are “contrary to Rivian’s culture, spirit and corporate policies.”
According to Bloomberg, Tesla has already filed lawsuits against China’s Xpeng Motors and against the new driverless car company Zoox, which recently struck a deal to be acquired by Amazon.
Earlier this month, Rivian closed another major round of funding from $ 2.5 billion from sponsors, including Amazon, which plans to use its vehicles in its delivery fleet. To date, the company, which has not yet released a production vehicle, has raised $ 6 billion without an attached valuation.
Read Tesla’s full complaint:
