By SDCN Staff
A federal jury in San Francisco on Friday convicted a former Google software engineer on seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets for stealing thousands of pages of confidential information containing Google’s trade secrets related to artificial intelligence technology for the benefit of the People’s Republic of China.
The jury’s verdict on Linwei Ding, also known as Leon Ding, 38, follows an 11-day trial before U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria for the Northern District of California.
Ding was originally indicted in March 2024. A superseding indictment returned in February 2025 described seven categories of trade secrets stolen by Ding and charged him 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’s AI trade secrets from Google’s network and uploaded them to his personal Google Cloud account. Ding also secretly affiliated himself with two PRC-based technology companies while Google employed him: 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’s CEO. In multiple statements to potential investors, Ding claimed that he could build an AI supercomputer by copying and modifying Google’s 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’s supercomputing data center to train and serve large AI models. The trade secrets contained detailed information about the architecture and functionality of Google’s custom Tensor Processing Unit chips and systems, Google’s 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’s custom-designed SmartNIC, a type of network interface card used to facilitate high-speed communication within Google’s AI supercomputers and cloud networking products.
In presentations to investors, Ding called out the People’s Republic of China’s national policies prioritizing AI development and innovation, and in late 2023, Ding applied for a government-sponsored “talent plan” in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. The jury heard evidence on their government’s establishment of talent plans to encourage individuals to come to China to contribute to the People’s Republic of China’s economic and technological growth. Ding’s application for this talent plan stated that he planned to “help China to have computing power infrastructure capabilities that are on par with the international level.” The evidence at trial also showed that Ding intended to benefit two entities controlled by the Chinese government by assisting with the development of an AI supercomputer and collaborating on the research and development of custom machine learning chips.
“Silicon 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,” said U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian for the Northern District of California.
“This conviction reinforces the FBI’s steadfast commitment to protecting American innovation and national security. The theft and misuse of advanced artificial intelligence technology for the benefit of the People’s Republic of China threatens our technological edge and economic competitiveness,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Sanjay Virmani for the San Francisco Field Office.
Ding is next scheduled to appear at a status conference on Feb. 3. Ding faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for each count of theft of trade secrets and 15 years in prison for each count of economic espionage.
