San Francisco jurors have convicted a former Google engineer of stealing confidential artificial intelligence data and transferring it to entities linked to China, marking a significant victory for U.S. authorities in protecting cutting-edge technology. The case, one of the most prominent trade secret thefts involving AI to date, underscores the escalating concerns around intellectual property security in the rapidly evolving tech landscape.
Linwei Ding was found guilty on 14 counts, including economic espionage and theft of trade secrets, following a trial centered on his actions while employed at Google between May 2022 and April 2023. Prosecutors argued that Ding copied sensitive internal documents while simultaneously seeking employment and venture capital from Chinese companies and developing his own start-up, Rongshu.
Beyond Google’s TPU accelerators, the stolen information included details about Google’s GPU machines and GPU cluster orchestration, focusing on how the company configures and operates multi-GPU systems at scale. It also encompassed proprietary SmartNIC hardware and software used for high-bandwidth, low-latency networking within Google’s AI clusters—a particularly sensitive area as AI models continue to grow in complexity.
“A calculated breach of trust”
Following the guilty verdict, U.S. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg stated, “This conviction exposes a calculated breach of trust involving some of the most advanced AI technology in the world at a critical moment in AI development.” Evidence presented at trial revealed that Ding copied data from Google source files into the Apple Notes application on his company-issued MacBook, converting those notes into PDF files, and uploading thousands of them to personal file storage over approximately 11 months. This method allowed Ding to circumvent Google’s detection systems.
Ding, who joined Google in 2019 as a GPU software developer, faces a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison for each of the seven economic espionage counts, in addition to penalties for the seven counts of theft of trade secrets. The Justice Department views the verdict as a landmark win in the fight against AI-related economic espionage, signaling a heightened focus on protecting AI and related technologies as vital to both economic and national security.
