Former Google software engineer Linwei Ding has been found guilty of economic espionage and theft of trade secrets. A federal jury convicted Ding on seven counts of each charge for stealing thousands of pages of confidential AI files to benefit China-based companies. While employed at Google, he copied proprietary information on advanced chip and supercomputer systems and used it to build his own AI startup in China. He now faces decades in prison, with sentencing proceedings upcoming.
A federal jury has convicted former Google software engineer Linwei Ding, also known as Leon Ding, on seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California stated the verdict followed an 11-day trial in San Francisco.
Ding was arrested in March 2024 and accused of stealing over 500 confidential AI files. Federal agents alleged he siphoned this material while secretly collaborating with companies based in China.
Between May 2022 and April 2023, Ding copied more than 2,000 pages of proprietary information to a personal account. The stolen trade secrets included specifications for Google‘s custom Tensor Processing Unit chips and the software for its AI supercomputers.
While stealing these files, Ding was simultaneously building his own AI venture in China. He became CEO of his own company and pitched investors on replicating Google’s technology.
Ding also applied to a Shanghai government talent program, pledging to help China achieve “international-level” computing infrastructure. “The jury delivered a clear message today that the theft of this valuable technology will not go unpunished,” U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian said.
The case highlights growing concerns about industrial espionage in the AI sector. “AI models are already geopolitically sensitive as we are deep into the AI arms race,” said Kadan Stadelmann, CTO of Komodo Platform.
He added that “AI espionage is already running rampant, because there is so much at stake with this technology.” Ding now faces up to 15 years in prison for each espionage count and 10 years for each theft count.
