Ex-Google engineer Ding Linwei convicted of stealing AI secrets for Chinese companies
Some of the blueprints were meant to give Google an edge over Amazon and Microsoft and to reduce Google’s reliance on Nvidia chips
Former Google software engineer Ding Linwei was convicted by a federal jury in San Francisco on Thursday of stealing AI trade secrets from the US tech giant to benefit two Chinese companies he was secretly working for, the US Department of Justice said on Thursday.
Ding, a 38-year-old Chinese national, was found guilty after an 11-day trial of seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets for stealing thousands of pages of confidential information.
Each economic espionage charge carries a maximum 15-year prison term and US$5 million fine, while each trade secrets charge carries a maximum 10-year term and US$250,000 fine.
Ding is scheduled to appear at a status conference on February 3, according to the DOJ.
A lawyer for Ding, also known as Leon Ding, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Ding was originally indicted in March 2024 on four counts of theft of trade secrets. A superseding indictment in February expanded the charges.