A former Google software engineer has been convicted by a US federal jury for stealing confidential AI trade secrets to benefit Chinese state-linked tech ventures.
Linwei Ding, also known as Leon Ding, 38, was found guilty on January 29, 2026, of seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets. The conviction follows an 11-day trial before US District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco, where prosecutors laid out a detailed account of Ding’s efforts to transfer proprietary AI technologies from Google to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) while covertly working to establish his own AI startup in the country.
The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by the Department of Justice’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, with assistance from the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California. According to the DOJ, Ding used his insider access between May 2022 and April 2023 to exfiltrate more than 2,000 pages of confidential documents detailing Google’s AI infrastructure and capabilities.
At the time, Ding was employed at Google, a core subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., and one of the world’s leading developers of AI infrastructure and cloud computing platforms. Google’s innovations in large-scale AI training rely heavily on proprietary systems, including custom Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), GPU-based architectures, orchestration software, and SmartNIC networking components, all of which were targeted in the theft.
Evidence presented at trial showed Ding uploaded the stolen materials to his personal Google Cloud account, and later to his own computer in December 2023, just weeks before resigning from the company. Simultaneously, he was in discussions to become CTO at a Chinese tech startup and was in the process of founding another PRC-based AI supercomputing company. He reportedly presented these efforts to investors by claiming he could replicate Google’s technology to build a domestic equivalent.
Investigators revealed that Ding applied to a PRC “talent plan” program in late 2023, a government initiative aimed at recruiting overseas tech experts to bolster China’s technological edge. In the application, Ding pledged to help China achieve “computing power infrastructure capabilities that are on par with the international level.” The jury concluded that his actions were intended to benefit two PRC state-controlled entities, aligning his efforts with national strategies to boost Chinese dominance in AI and chip development.
The jury’s verdict reflects growing concerns among US officials about China’s targeting of cutting-edge technologies through industrial espionage and talent-recruitment programs. FBI officials emphasized the national security implications of such cases, citing the strategic importance of AI infrastructure to both economic competitiveness and military readiness.
Ding is scheduled for a status hearing on February 3, 2026. He faces up to 10 years in prison for each trade secrets theft charge and up to 15 years for each count of economic espionage.
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