Former Google Engineer Convicted in Landmark AI Espionage Case

A federal jury has found a former software engineer at Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) guilty of stealing artificial-intelligence trade secrets, marking the first U.S. conviction tied specifically to AI-related economic espionage, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The verdict, delivered Thursday in San Francisco federal court, concludes an 11-day trial involving Linwei Ding, also known as Leon Ding. Jurors convicted Ding on multiple counts of economic espionage and theft of trade secrets, finding that he unlawfully removed confidential Google AI materials with the intent to benefit entities linked to China.

Federal prosecutors said Ding transferred thousands of pages of internal Google documents to a personal cloud account while still employed by the company. Authorities allege the materials were taken over an extended period between 2022 and 2023, during which time Ding had connections to Chinese technology firms and was pursuing plans to launch his own venture. According to court filings, the stolen information included sensitive technical details related to Google’s AI infrastructure, such as proprietary processor designs, advanced computing architectures, and networking systems used to power large-scale machine learning workloads. Prosecutors argued that the data represented core intellectual property central to Google’s AI capabilities.

U.S. officials framed the case as a milestone in enforcing protections around emerging technologies. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said the conviction underscores growing national security concerns surrounding artificial intelligence and the competitive race between global powers.

Defense counsel challenged the government’s case by arguing that Google’s internal systems allowed wide employee access to the documents in question, asserting that such openness undermined claims that the information constituted protected trade secrets. The jury ultimately rejected that argument.The case was overseen by U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of the Northern District of California. Sentencing has not yet been scheduled. Under federal law, Ding faces potential prison terms of up to 15 years per count for economic espionage and up to 10 years per count for trade secret theft, subject to the court’s discretion.

Google said it welcomed the verdict, emphasizing the importance of safeguarding proprietary technology. Company executives and U.S. officials have increasingly warned about the strategic implications of AI development, particularly as competition between the United States and China intensifies.

The Department of Justice said the conviction signals a tougher stance on protecting advanced technologies as artificial intelligence becomes more central to economic growth and national defense.

About Google

Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is a global technology company specializing in internet services, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. A subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., Google develops widely used products across search, advertising, mobile operating systems, and AI research, including advanced computing infrastructure supporting large-scale machine learning and cloud services.