Ex-Google Engineer Convicted of Stealing AI Infrastructure Secrets for Chinese Ventures

Ding Linwei’s conviction is one of several recent U.S. trade secret cases prosecutors have linked to China’s ‘talent program’ recruitment efforts.

View of the Google headquarters in San Salvador, El Salvador, on April 15, 2024. Marvin Recinos/AFP via Getty Images

A federal jury in San Francisco has convicted former Google software engineer Ding Linwei of stealing confidential information about Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) computing systems and using it to support China-based ventures.

Ding, 38, was found guilty on seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets following an 11-day trial, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced on Thursday. Prosecutors said the stolen information detailed how Google designs, builds, and operates the supercomputing data centers used to train and run large AI models.