SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — Former Google software engineer Linwei Ding was sentenced Tuesday to 12 months minus one day in prison after being convicted of stealing confidential artificial intelligence technology and trade secrets from Google.
Ding, also known as Leon Ding, will also serve two years of supervised release and must pay more than $189,000 in restitution and a $25,000 fine.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria described Ding’s actions as a systematic effort to steal Google’s intellectual property.
Prosecutors said Ding began transferring confidential Google files to a personal Google Cloud account in May 2022 and continued through May 2023.
During an 11-day trial, prosecutors presented evidence involving hundreds of confidential files and more than 2,000 pages of proprietary information related to Google’s AI computing infrastructure.
The material included details about Tensor Processing Units, graphics processing units, networking technology and software used to connect thousands of chips in large-scale AI computing systems.
Prosecutors argued that the information could help competitors shorten the time and cost needed to develop advanced AI infrastructure.
The case also focused on Ding’s ties to technology companies in China while he remained employed by Google.
Prosecutors said Chinese technology company Rongshu offered Ding a chief technology officer position in 2022. Ding later founded Zhisuan, a China-based company focused on developing computing systems for training large AI models.
A Zhisuan document circulated by Ding in 2023 discussed using experience with Google’s computing platform to develop a similar system in China, according to prosecutors.
Ding also applied to a Chinese government talent program and did not disclose his business ties in China to Google, prosecutors said.
Authorities also alleged that Ding arranged for an intern to use his Google identification card while he was working in China, creating the appearance that he was still reporting to his Google office.
However, Chhabria found that prosecutors had not proven Ding intended his conduct to benefit the Chinese government during the period covered by the charges.
A San Francisco jury convicted Ding in January on seven counts of trade secret theft and seven counts of economic espionage. The judge later set aside the economic espionage convictions while allowing the trade secret convictions to stand.
Ding came to the United States in 2010 for graduate school and later worked for several Silicon Valley technology companies. Google hired him as a software engineer in 2019, giving him access to sensitive information about the company’s AI infrastructure.
