A federal jury in San Francisco convicted a former Google software engineer on multiple counts of economic espionage and theft of confidential artificial technology. Having found 38-year-old Linwei Ding, also known as Leon Ding, guilty of the US crimes, the FBI announced Friday, the individual “betrayed both the US and his employer by stealing trade secrets about Google’s AI technology on behalf of China’s government.”
As already revealed in a previous press release by the Department of Justice, Ding, who is a Chinese national, was residing in Newark, California, at the time of his arrest in March 2024.
As per Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky, FBI Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, this marks the “first-ever conviction on AI-related economic espionage charges.” The top official further asserted in the official news release that it was also a testament to “FBI’s unwavering dedication to protecting American businesses from the increasingly severe threat China poses to our economic and national security.”
How the Google techie stole AI secrets with Apple Notes
Ahead of his 2026 conviction, Ding was originally indicted in March 2024. Thereafter, in Feb 2025, a superseding indictment laid out several categories of trade stolen by Ding, thereby leaving him to face the multiple charges.
As per the US Justice Department’s news release, the evidence presented at trial was dated between May 2022 an April 2023. During this time, Ding was still a Google employee, and he stole more than 2,000 pages of sensitive information containing Google’s AI trade secrets from Google’s network. He then transferred Google trade secrets to his personal account in December 2023, less than two weeks before he resigned from Google.
The US government determined that he was also affiliated with two People’s Republic of China (PRC)-based technology companies while he was still a Google employee. He originally joined Google as a software engineer in 2019. The 2024 indictment divulged that he is believed to have started secretly uploading AI trade secrets in May 2022.
Moreover, he was expected to become the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for an early-stage technology company in the PRC, by early 2023.The Justice Department further revealed that Ding was even in the process of founding his own tech company-focused on AI and machine learning-in China, and took on the role of the company’s CEO.
As per more details about the case unveiled by the US government, multiple statements from Ding to potential investors for his PRC-based startup indicated that he had plans to build an AI supercomputer by copying and modifying Google’s technology.
Google AI heist explained
Having been employed as a software engineer at Google in 2019, Ding’s responsibilities included developing the software deployed in Google’s supercomputing data centres. Due to his professional standing in the company, the Chinese national was also granted access to Google’s confidential information related to the hardware infrastructure, the software platform and the AI models and apps they supported.
From May 21, 2022, onwards he started uploading trade secrets by copying them from Google’s network to his own Google Cloud account. As per the indictment detailed by the DOJ, Ding continued periodically uploading them until May 2, 2023. By this time, he is believed to have uploaded over 500 unique files.
As per the Justice Department’s revelations, Ding’s efforts to conceal the theft included copying the data from Google source files into the Apple Notes application on his Google-issued MacBook laptop. He ultimately converted the Apple Note into PDF files and then uploaded them from the Google network into a separate account. By doing so, he is said to have evaded detection by Google’s data loss prevention systems.
In December 2023, he is said to have allowed another Google employee to use his Google-issued access badge to scan into the entrance of a company building. As per the DOJ, the action was executed to make it seem as if he was still working from his US Google office even though he was, in fact, in China.
Charges against ex-Google engineer Linwei Ding
In a news release published on January 30 (US time), the US Justice Department detailed that Linwei Ding had been found convicted on seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets.
The San Francisco jury’s verdict comes after an 11-day trial led by US District Judge Vince Chhabria.
Ding is next scheduled to appear at a status conference on February 3, 2026. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for each count of theft of trade secrets in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1832 and 15 years in prison for each count of economic espionage in violation of 18 U.S.C § 1831.