A former Google engineer has been convicted in the United States on multiple charges related to economic espionage and theft of trade secrets, following allegations that he stole confidential artificial intelligence related documents to support business activities linked to China. The Department of Justice announced that Linwei Ding, also known as Leon Ding, was found guilty by a federal jury after being accused of taking thousands of internal Google files while employed at the company.
According to the DoJ, Ding, 38, was convicted on seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets. Prosecutors said he unlawfully took more than 2,000 confidential documents containing sensitive Google intellectual property tied to advanced AI technologies, with the intent to benefit entities connected to the People Republic of China. US Attorney Craig H. Missakian said Silicon Valley remains central to artificial intelligence innovation and stressed that US authorities would continue protecting American intellectual capital from foreign interests seeking unfair competitive advantages that could place national security at risk.
Court records show that Ding was indicted in March 2024 after investigators determined he had transferred proprietary data from Google internal systems to his personal Google Cloud account. The stolen material included detailed information on Google supercomputing data center infrastructure used for training and running AI models, the Cluster Management System software responsible for managing those data centers, and technical designs supporting AI applications. Prosecutors said the documents also covered the architecture and functionality of Google custom Tensor Processing Unit chips, Graphics Processing Unit systems, software that enables chips to communicate and execute workloads, orchestration software capable of coordinating thousands of processors into an AI supercomputer, and SmartNIC technology designed for high speed networking inside Google AI infrastructure. The alleged theft occurred between May 2022 and April 2023, during Ding employment at Google, which began in 2019.
The DoJ further alleged that while still working at Google, Ding developed ties with two China based technology companies, including Shanghai Zhisuan Technologies Co., a startup he founded in 2023. Prosecutors stated that Ding downloaded a large volume of sensitive files in December 2023, less than two weeks before resigning from Google. Investigators also accused him of attempting to conceal the activity by copying source code and technical data into the Apple Notes application on his company issued MacBook, converting those notes into PDF files, and uploading them to his personal cloud storage. Additional allegations included Ding asking a colleague to use his access badge to enter a Google facility, creating the appearance that he was working onsite while he was actually in China. The scheme reportedly came to light in late 2023 after Google discovered Ding had delivered a public presentation in China to potential investors about his startup.
In February 2025, prosecutors expanded the case with a superseding indictment that added economic espionage charges and alleged Ding had applied to a Shanghai based talent program sponsored by Beijing. The indictment described such programs as efforts to encourage researchers and engineers working abroad to relocate or contribute to China technological development. According to the DoJ, Ding application stated his intention to help China achieve computing power infrastructure comparable to international standards. Evidence presented at trial indicated he aimed to support entities controlled by the Chinese government by contributing to AI supercomputer development and collaborating on custom machine learning chip research. Ding is scheduled to appear at a status conference on February 3, 2026, and faces a potential maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for each trade secret theft count and 15 years for each economic espionage count.
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