Chinese national charged with stealing Google AI trade secrets
A former Google engineer of Chinese origin faces up to 175 years in prison for allegedly stealing AI trade secrets and leaking them to China-based tech firms.
A Chinese national employed by Google in the United States is facing economic espionage charges for allegedly stealing proprietary information related to Google’s AI technology, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on February 5.
The 14-count superseding indictment accuses Linwei (Leon) Ding of uploading over 1,000 confidential Google files to his personal Google Cloud account between May 2022 and May 2023. The files allegedly contained sensitive data about Google’s hardware infrastructure and software platforms that support its AI supercomputing systems.
Ding, a software engineer at Google since 2019, is accused of secretly developing ties with two Chinese technology companies. According to court documents, Ding allegedly intended to share Google’s trade secrets with the Chinese government.
The indictment further claims that Ding began communications with the chief technology officer of a Chinese tech firm in June 2022. By May 2023, he had secretly founded an AI and machine-learning company in China, where he served as the CEO.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Linwei (Leon) Ding is accused of stealing sensitive trade secrets from Google, including details about the company’s custom-designed SmartNIC, Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), and Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) chips and systems.
In addition, Ding allegedly leaked sensitive software related to chip communications and next-generation AI innovations, with the intent to benefit the People’s Republic of China (PRC) government.
Attacking Google from within
The DOJ also claims that Ding created and circulated PowerPoint presentations within his Chinese company, which referenced PRC national policies and talent programs. The presentations allegedly included statements like, “will help China to have computing power infrastructure capabilities that are on par with the international level.”
The case is still under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Ding has not yet been proven guilty. He was indicted and arrested in March 2024 on four counts of theft of trade secrets and has been held by U.S. authorities as the legal process moves forward.
If convicted on all counts of economic espionage and theft of trade secrets, Ding faces up to 175 years in prison and fines of up to $36.75 million. However, the final amount for the fine will depend on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other considerations.
