Ex-Google engineer convicted of stealing AI trade secrets to benefit China

A former software engineer at Google has been convicted of stealing artificial intelligence trade secrets for the benefit of China, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

A federal jury on Thursday convicted Linwei Ding, 38, of seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets after an 11-day trial in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California.

The verdict marked the Justice Department’s first conviction on AI-related economic espionage charges, according to a statement from Roman Rozhavsky, assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence and espionage division.

Ding’s attorney did not respond to an email seeking comment Friday.

Ding stole more than 2,000 pages of confidential information containing Google’s AI trade secrets from the company’s network and uploaded them to his personal Google cloud account between May 2022 and April 2023, according to evidence presented at trial.

At the same time, he secretly worked with two Beijing-based technology companies, staging discussions with one early-stage company to be its chief technology officer, and later acting as founder and chief executive of a second startup, prosecutors said. He told potential investors that he could build an AI supercomputer by copying Google’s technology, court documents state.

Ding downloaded the trade secrets to his personal computer less than two weeks before he resigned from Google in December 2023, prosecutors said. He also applied for what prosecutors described as a Chinese government-sponsored “talent plan” intended to attract people to contribute to the country’s economic and technological growth.

His application stated that he planned to “help China to have computing power infrastructure capabilities that are on par with the international level,” prosecutors said.

“This conviction reinforces the FBI’s steadfast commitment to protecting American innovation and national security,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Sanjay Virmani said in a statement.

“The theft and misuse of advanced artificial intelligence technology” to benefit China, Virmani added, “threatens our technological edge and economic competitiveness.”

Ding faces a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in prison for each count of theft of trade secrets and 15 years in prison for each count of economic espionage. He’s next due in court Tuesday for a status conference.

“We’re grateful to the jury for making sure justice was served today, sending a clear message that stealing trade secrets has serious consequences.” Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice president of regulatory affairs for Google, said in a statement.