A former Google engineer has been convicted in the United States for stealing thousands of confidential AI-related documents to benefit a China-based startup, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced. Linwei Ding, also known as Leon Ding, 38, was found guilty by a federal jury on seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets.
According to prosecutors, Ding unlawfully took more than 2,000 internal Google documents containing sensitive artificial intelligence trade secrets for the benefit of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The stolen material included details of Google’s AI supercomputing data centre infrastructure, Cluster Management System (CMS) software, and advanced AI models and applications.
The trade secrets specifically covered the architecture of Google’s custom Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) chips, GPU systems, chip communication software, orchestration software that links thousands of chips into AI supercomputers, and custom SmartNIC networking components.
The theft occurred between May 2022 and April 2023. While employed at Google, Ding secretly affiliated with China-based technology firms, including Shanghai Zhisuan Technologies Co., a startup he founded in 2023. Investigators revealed that he transferred proprietary files to his personal cloud accounts, disguised data using Apple Notes and PDFs, and attempted to conceal his activities by misrepresenting his work location.
The scheme was uncovered after Google learned that Ding had presented his startup to investors in China. He now faces up to 15 years in prison per espionage count and 10 years per trade secret theft charge, with sentencing proceedings scheduled in 2026.
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