US prosecutors on Tuesday unveiled an expanded 14-count indictment accusing former Google software program engineer Linwei Ding of stealing Artificial Intelligence (AI) commerce secrets and techniques to learn two Chinese firms he was secretly working for.
Ding, 38, a Chinese nationwide, was charged by a federal grand jury in San Francisco with seven counts every of financial espionage and theft of commerce secrets and techniques.
Each financial espionage cost carries a most 15-year jail time period and $5 million (roughly Rs. 43 crore) effective, whereas every commerce secrets and techniques cost carries a most 10-year time period and $250,000 (roughly Rs. 2.18 crore) effective.
The defendant, also referred to as Leon Ding, was indicted final March on 4 counts of theft of commerce secrets and techniques. He is free on bond. Lawyers for Ding didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Ding’s case was coordinated by an interagency Disruptive Technology Strike Force created in 2023 by the Biden administration.
The initiative was designed to assist cease superior expertise from being acquired by nations akin to China and Russia, or doubtlessly threatening nationwide safety.
Prosecutors mentioned Ding stole details about the {hardware} infrastructure and software program platform that lets Google’s supercomputing information facilities practice massive AI fashions.
Some of the allegedly stolen chip blueprints have been meant to provide Google an edge over cloud computing rivals Amazon.com and Microsoft, which design their very own, and cut back Google’s reliance on chips from Nvidia.
Prosecutors mentioned Ding joined Google in May 2019 and commenced his thefts three years later, when he was being courted to hitch an early-stage Chinese expertise firm.
Ding allegedly uploaded greater than 1,000 confidential recordsdata by May 2023 and later circulated a PowerPoint presentation to staff of a China startup he based, saying that nation’s insurance policies inspired growth of a home AI business.
Google was not charged and has mentioned it cooperated with legislation enforcement.
According to court docket information describing a Dec. 18 listening to, prosecutors and protection legal professionals mentioned a “potential resolution” to Ding’s case, “but anticipate the matter proceeding to trial.”
The case is US v. Ding, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 24-cr-00141.
© Thomson Reuters 2025
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