Ex-Google engineer convicted of stealing AI trade secrets for China
Ex-Google engineer convicted of stealing AI trade secrets for China
Publish Date: 2026-01-30 21:31:00
Source Domain: www.latimes.com
- Former Google software engineer Linwei Ding convicted of theft of AI trade secrets for the benefit of China.
- Ding found guilty of seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets following an 11-day trial.
- This marks the U.S. Department of Justice’s first conviction on AI-related economic espionage charges.
- Ding stole over 2,000 pages of confidential AI trade secrets from Google and uploaded them to his personal cloud account.
- While stealing trade secrets, Ding worked secretly with two Beijing-based technology companies with plans to contribute to China’s economic growth by building an AI supercomputer based on stolen Google technology.
- Ding could face 15 years in prison for each count of economic espionage and 10 years for each count of trade secret theft after his status conference on Tuesday.
- The verdict underscores the FBI’s commitment to safeguarding American innovation and national security.
