Ex-Google engineer charged with economic espionage and theft of AI trade secrets
A former Google engineer has been indicted on charges of economic espionage and theft of trade secrets for allegedly stealing proprietary information about Google's AI hardware and software infrastructure and transferring it to Chinese companies. According to prosecutors, Linwei Ding uploaded over 1,000 confidential files to his personal account and worked for Chinese firms, including one that offered him a CTO position.
What happened
Linwei Ding, a 38-year-old Chinese national and former Google software engineer, was indicted on seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets. According to prosecutors, Ding joined Google in 2019 and uploaded more than 1,000 confidential files from Google's network to his personal Google Cloud account between May 2022 and May 2023.
The stolen trade secrets contained detailed information about Google's hardware infrastructure and software platform, including architecture and functionality of TPU chips and GPU systems, software enabling chip communication, and Google's custom-designed SmartNIC and related software. In June 2022, Ding was offered the position of chief technology officer at China-based Beijing Rongshu Lianzhi Technology with a monthly salary of approximately $14,800.
Ding traveled to China in October 2022 and remained there until March 2023, during which he participated in investor meetings for Rongshu Lianzhi. In May 2023, he founded Shanghai Zhisuan Technology and became its chief executive officer. A PowerPoint presentation Ding circulated to investors in November 2023 included Beijing's national policies aimed at advancing China's domestic AI industry.
Reported impact
Google's proprietary hardware and software infrastructure used to train and serve large AI models was compromised. The trade secrets relate to the architecture and functionality of Google's supercomputing data centers, which are critical to the company's AI capabilities.
Index analysis
The case involves the unauthorized transfer of technological information and intellectual property related to AI infrastructure from a major technology company to Chinese entities. The defendant's actions occurred while employed by Google and involved systematic theft of confidential files spanning over a year.
Governance controls
Ding was charged under federal law for economic espionage and theft of trade secrets. He was initially indicted in March and faced a superseding indictment on February 4 with expanded charges. At the time of the announcement, Ding remained free on bond.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.