Wilmington, Delaware | Jan. 29, 2026A former Google software engineer has been convicted in the United States of stealing artificial intelligence trade secrets from the tech giant and secretly passing them to Chinese companies, U.S. prosecutors said on Thursday.
Linwei Ding, also known as Leon Ding, was found guilty by a federal jury in San Francisco after an 11-day trial. Prosecutors said the 38-year-old Chinese national unlawfully obtained thousands of pages of confidential AI-related material while employed at Google.
Serious Espionage Charges
The jury convicted Ding on seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets. Each espionage charge carries a potential sentence of up to 15 years in prison and a $5 million fine, while each trade secrets count carries a maximum 10-year prison term and a $250,000 fine.
Ding is scheduled to appear in court for a status conference on February 3, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
His lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Secrets Tied to AI Infrastructure
Prosecutors said Ding stole sensitive information related to Google’s hardware infrastructure and software systems used to train large-scale artificial intelligence models in its supercomputing data centers.
Some of the stolen material included chip design blueprints intended to help Google reduce its dependence on Nvidia while competing more effectively with cloud rivals such as Amazon and Microsoft, which develop their own custom AI chips.
Authorities said Ding joined Google in 2019 and began stealing data around three years later, while simultaneously being courted by a Chinese technology startup and working with a second Chinese firm.
National Security Focus
The case was handled under the U.S. government’s Disruptive Technology Strike Force, an interagency initiative launched in 2023 to prevent the theft of sensitive technologies critical to national security.
Ding was initially charged in March 2024. Prosecutors later expanded the case with additional charges in a superseding indictment filed in February.
Google was not charged in the case and has said it cooperated fully with law enforcement.
