Former Google Engineer Convicted of Espionage in Historic AI Case
A federal jury in San Francisco has adjudicated a former Google software engineer guilty of espionage and the theft of trade secrets, marking the inaugural espionage conviction linked to artificial intelligence.
After an 11-day judicial examination, the jury delivered its verdict on Thursday, finding Linwei Ding—known informally as Leon Ding—culpable on seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts relating to the theft of trade secrets.
This includes an alarming cache of thousands of pages of confidential Google documents purloined to benefit the Chinese government.
Roman Rozhavsky, assistant director of the FBI’s espionage division, expressed the gravity of the situation: “In today’s high-stakes race to dominate the field of artificial intelligence, Linwei Ding betrayed both the US and his employer by stealing trade secrets about Google’s AI technology on behalf of China’s government,” he remarked in a statement released on Friday.
A federal jury in San Francisco has found a former Google software engineer guilty of espionage and theft of trade secrets. REUTERS
The competitive landscape of artificial intelligence is increasingly fraught with tension. US tech firms have been in a fierce race to release the most sophisticated AI models, particularly following China’s DeepSeek, which stunned the industry in January 2025 by releasing AI chips that operated at a fraction of the cost of their American counterparts.
Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, recently cautioned that Chinese AI developments may soon be merely “a matter of months” behind those in the US.
From May 2022 to April 2023, Ding, aged 38, illicitly appropriated over 2,000 pages of sensitive corporate information encompassing Google’s AI innovations, uploading them to his personal Google Cloud account, according to revelations from the Justice Department.
Having been indicted in March 2024, Ding also reportedly established clandestine affiliations with two Chinese technology companies during his tenure at Google, as per DOJ assertions.
Furthermore, he was negotiating to assume the role of chief technology officer at a Chinese tech firm and was in the process of launching his own startup based in China.
The jury found Leon Ding guilty on seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets. LinkedIn
In communications with prospective investors, Ding asserted that he could construct an AI supercomputer utilizing the stolen trade secrets from Google, according to Justice Department filings.
Notably, in December 2023, shortly before his departure from the tech giant, he surreptitiously downloaded the pilfered documents onto his personal computer.
These documents contained intricate details regarding Google’s Tensor Processing Unit chips and its proprietary SmartNIC, a specialized network interface card, which could facilitate the training of large-scale AI models, as delineated by the DOJ.
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg underscored the significance of this espionage case, stating it involved “some of the most advanced AI technology in the world at a critical moment in AI development.”
Ding is now confronted with a potential maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for each count of theft and 15 years for each count of economic espionage.
In defense, his attorney Grant Fondo contended that the documents in question lacked significant value as trade secrets, arguing that Google had failed to adequately safeguard them.
“Google chose openness over security,” Fondo declared during closing remarks, asserting that the company did not implement reasonable protective measures.
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