Former Google Engineer Indicted for Allegedly Stealing AI Trade Secrets

Linwei Ding faces 14 charges of economic espionage and theft, accused of aiding Chinese companies with stolen proprietary AI technology.

Linwei Ding, a former Google software engineer, has been charged with seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets in a superseding indictment.
Prosecutors allege Ding stole over 1,000 confidential Google files between May 2022 and May 2023, including details on AI hardware and software infrastructure.
Ding allegedly used the stolen trade secrets to found an AI startup in China and applied for a Chinese government talent program to support domestic AI development.
The stolen information reportedly included proprietary data on Google’s Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) chips, GPU systems, and SmartNIC technology.
If convicted, Ding could face up to 175 years in prison and fines exceeding $36 million, with the case set to potentially proceed to trial.