Ex-Apple engineer joins Tesla Optimus AI team says he’s overwhelmed by the lab’s scale and culture
Yilun Chen, a former Apple research scientist, has joined Tesla’s Optimus AI team, saying he is amazed by the scale of the lab and its dedication to advancing humanoid robotics.
Former Apple research scientist Yilun Chen has joined Tesla’s Optimus AI team to help build advanced humanoid robots. Chen announced his exit from Apple in a detailed career update on X (formerly Twitter), and described his departure as the conclusion of an “unforgettable chapter”. Now just a few weeks into his new role at Tesla, Chen says the experience so far has been both inspiring and energizing, adding that he is absolutely amazed by the sheer scale of Optimus Labs and its work culture.
Chen spent nearly four years at Apple, where he moved from the role of an individual contributor to technical leadership. Although much of his work remains confidential, his LinkedIn profile shows that he spent about three years as a machine learning engineer before moving into the role of research scientist. In his post on X, he reflected that his time at Apple was defined by rapid development, cross-functional collaboration, and exposure to projects across engineering, research, early product incubation, and practical prototyping. “Although many of them have not yet gone public (wait for the surprise!), I feel very honored to experience, learn, and grow from IC to technical leadership, from engineering to research, from large engineering teams to early product incubation and prototyping. Each role has provided me with invaluable unique lessons,” he wrote in his post on X.
Yilun Chen’s new role at Tesla
Chen’s move to Tesla comes at a time when the company is devoting its energy to the Optimus program, its high-profile effort to develop humanoid robots powered by LLM-driven reasoning and emerging “physical AI” systems. “The humanoid is the ultimate dream of our generation,” he wrote, adding that recent breakthroughs in AI and robotics have brought that vision much closer. Tesla offers “the right combination of software, hardware and AI talents” needed to turn that ambition into reality, he said.
Influenced by Tesla’s Optimus Lab
After starting his new role, Chen revealed that his first visit to Optimus Lab left a lasting impression. He said he was completely amazed by the scale and sophistication of the laboratory’s operations, praising the deep dedication of the engineers and researchers working on the program. According to Chen, the lab’s environment is driven by spontaneous deep tech discussions, a flat team structure, rapid prototyping cycles, and what he called a “crazy ideas with super-fast iterations” culture. This fast-paced approach creates a unique sense of purpose: “You can feel the energy of changing the world here,” he wrote.
Tesla has repeatedly positioned Optimus as one of its most important long-term products, with CEO Elon Musk calling humanoid robotics central to the company’s future. The initiative combines robotics, machine learning and Tesla’s in-house hardware capabilities with the goal of creating humanoid robots capable of performing general-purpose tasks in homes, factories and industrial environments. While some in the industry remain skeptical about the timeline for achieving advanced humanoid capabilities, Tesla continues to advance the program and demonstrate rapid progress through regular prototype updates.
Chen’s arrival adds another experienced AI and engineering leader to the Optimus team, highlighting how Tesla is attracting top talent from major tech companies as it accelerates its humanoid robotics ambitions.
