{"id":441392,"date":"2026-01-31T19:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T19:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/441392\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T19:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T19:16:09","slug":"ex-google-engineer-convicted-of-stealing-ai-secrets-for-startup-in-china-fbi-says-betrayed-both-america-and-google-by","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/441392\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Google engineer convicted of stealing AI secrets for startup in China; FBI says: Betrayed both America and Google by …"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ex-Google A federal jury in San Francisco this week convicted former Google<\/a> software engineer Linwei Ding, also known as Leon Ding, 38, on seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets for stealing thousands of pages of confidential information containing Google\u2019s trade secrets related to artificial intelligence technology for the benefit of the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC). The jury\u2019s verdict follows an 11-day trial before U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria for the Northern District of California.\u201cThis conviction exposes a calculated breach of trust involving some of the most advanced AI technology in the world at a critical moment in AI development,\u201d said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. \u201cDing abused his privileged access to steal AI trade secrets while pursuing PRC government-aligned ventures. His duplicity put U.S. technological leadership and competitiveness at risk. I commend the trial team and investigators whose exceptional work resulted in this conviction.\u201d\u201cIn today\u2019s high-stakes race to dominate the field of artificial intelligence, Linwei Ding betrayed both the U.S. and his employer by stealing trade secrets about Google\u2019s AI technology on behalf of China\u2019s government,\u201d said Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division. \u201cNot only does this case mark the first-ever conviction on AI-related economic espionage charges, but it also demonstrates the FBI\u2019s unwavering dedication to protecting American businesses from the increasingly severe threat China poses to our economic and national security. We remain committed to working closely with our partners across the private sector to protect our nation\u2019s innovation, safeguard our trade secrets, and hold our foreign adversaries accountable.\u201d\u201cSilicon Valley is at the forefront of artificial intelligence innovation, pioneering transformative work that drives economic growth and strengthens our national security. The jury delivered a clear message today that the theft of this valuable technology will not go unpunished. We will vigorously protect American intellectual capital from foreign interests that seek to gain an unfair competitive advantage while putting our national security at risk,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian for the Northern District of California.\u201cThis conviction reinforces the FBI\u2019s steadfast commitment to protecting American innovation and national security. The theft and misuse of advanced artificial intelligence technology for the benefit of the People\u2019s Republic of China threatens our technological edge and economic competitiveness,\u201d said FBI Special Agent in Charge Sanjay Virmani for the San Francisco Field Office. \u201cThe FBI San Francisco division serves Silicon Valley and the companies who lead the world in innovation, and we are committed to safeguarding their work. This case demonstrates the strength of collaboration between the FBI and the private sector, including leading companies like Google, whose partnership is critical to protecting sensitive U.S. technology. Today\u2019s verdict affirms that federal law will be enforced to protect our nation\u2019s most valuable technologies and hold those who steal them accountable.\u201dDing was originally indicted in March 2024. A superseding indictment returned in February 2025 described seven categories of trade secrets stolen by Ding and charged Ding with seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets.According to the evidence presented at trial, between approximately May 2022 and April 2023, while a Google employee, Ding stole more than two thousand pages of confidential information containing Google\u2019s AI trade secrets from Google\u2019s network and uploaded them to his personal Google Cloud account. Ding also secretly affiliated himself with two PRC-based technology companies while he was employed by Google: around June 2022, Ding was in discussions to be the Chief Technology Officer for an early-stage technology company based in the PRC; by early 2023, Ding was in the process of founding his own technology company in the PRC focused on AI and machine learning and was acting as the company\u2019s CEO. In multiple statements to potential investors, Ding claimed that he could build an AI supercomputer by copying and modifying Google\u2019s technology. In December 2023, less than two weeks before he resigned from Google, Ding downloaded the stolen Google trade secrets to his own personal computer.The jury found that Ding stole trade secrets relating to the hardware infrastructure and software platforms that allow Google\u2019s supercomputing data center to train and serve large AI models. The trade secrets contained detailed information about the architecture and functionality of Google\u2019s custom Tensor Processing Unit chips and systems and Google\u2019s Graphics Processing Unit systems, the software that allows the chips to communicate and execute tasks, and the software that orchestrates thousands of chips into a supercomputer capable of training and executing cutting-edge AI workloads. The trade secrets also pertained to Google\u2019s custom-designed SmartNIC, a type of network interface card used to facilitate high speed communication within Google\u2019s AI supercomputers and cloud networking products.In presentations to investors, Ding called out the PRC\u2019s national policies prioritizing AI development and innovation in the PRC, and in late 2023 Ding applied for a government sponsored \u201ctalent plan\u201d in Shanghai, PRC. The jury heard evidence pertaining to the PRC government\u2019s establishment of talent plans to encourage individuals to come to China to contribute to the PRC\u2019s economic and technological growth. Ding\u2019s application for this talent plan stated that he planned to \u201chelp China to have computing power infrastructure capabilities that are on par with the international level.\u201d The evidence at trial also showed that Ding intended to benefit two entities controlled by the government of China by assisting with the development of an AI supercomputer and collaborating on the research and development of custom machine learning chips.Ding is next scheduled to appear at a status conference on Feb. 3, 2026. Ding faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for each count of theft of trade secrets in violation of 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 1832 and 15 years in prison for each count of economic espionage in violation of 18 U.S.C \u00a7 1831. Any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the Court only after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 3553.Assistant U.S. Attorneys for the Northern District of California Casey Boome, Molly K. Priedeman, and Roland Chang are prosecuting this case, with assistance from Veronica Hernandez and Trial Attorney Yifei Zheng from the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, National Security Division. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the FBI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal jury in San Francisco this week convicted former Google software engineer Linwei Ding, also known as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,208012,168,174107,74,208014,208013],"class_list":{"0":"post-441392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-ding","12":"tag-google","13":"tag-googles","14":"tag-technology","15":"tag-vince-chhabria","16":"tag-yifei-zheng"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}