A significant legal development occurred this week in San Francisco, where a federal jury found Linwei Ding, also known as Leon Ding, guilty on multiple counts related to economic espionage and theft of trade secrets. Ding, previously a software engineer at Alphabet Inc.-owned Google, was convicted for stealing sensitive artificial intelligence (AI) trade secrets with the intent to benefit the People's Republic of China.
According to court records, the jury convicted Ding on seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets after an 11-day trial overseen by U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria. The verdict was delivered on a Thursday, with Ding initially indicted in 2024.
Prosecutors detailed that over a period from May 2022 through April 2023, Ding exfiltrated more than 2,000 pages of internal Google documents, which he uploaded to his personal cloud account. The material contained highly confidential information about some of Google's most advanced AI infrastructure components, including its proprietary Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) chips designed explicitly for AI workloads, GPU-based AI systems, and SmartNIC networking technology, which facilitates rapid communication among AI supercomputers and supports Google's cloud infrastructure.
At the time of the theft, Ding maintained affiliations with two technology companies based in China and was actively working toward establishing his own business venture. This connection formed a focal point of the prosecution's argument that he intended to benefit foreign entities through the misappropriation of Google's trade secrets.
The Department of Justice highlighted the uniqueness of this case, stating it represents the first U.S. conviction centered explicitly on economic espionage within the artificial intelligence domain. Roman Rozhavsky, an assistant director at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, emphasized the high stakes involved in the global competition to dominate AI technologies. He described Ding's actions as a betrayal of both the United States and his employer, characterizing the verdict as a strong deterrent against the theft of critical technology.
The defense contended that Google had not sufficiently safeguarded the alleged trade secrets and posited that the information was broadly accessible internally within the company. This argument was reported by Courthouse News Service but did not sway the jury's decision in the case.
Ding currently faces severe potential penalties, including up to 10 years imprisonment for each count involving trade secret theft and up to 15 years for each count of economic espionage. His forthcoming court appearance is scheduled for the following Tuesday, where sentencing or further proceedings are anticipated.
Following the verdict, Alphabet publicly affirmed that the ruling underscores the grave consequences of trade secret theft and reiterates their commitment to protecting proprietary technologies. Market responses reflected minor declines in Alphabet stock prices, with Class A shares (GOOGL) falling 0.13 percent and Class C shares (GOOG) decreasing 0.11 percent on Friday, as reported by Benzinga Pro. Despite this, Alphabet holds a strong Quality rating in Benzinga’s Edge Stock Rankings, supported by positive price trends over short, medium, and long-term periods.