On February 5, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) charged a Chinese national employed by Google in the US with economic espionage for purportedly leaking Google’s confidential AI technology information. Leon Ding, also known as Linwei, is alleged to have transferred over 1,000 private Google files to his personal Google Cloud account from May 2022 to May 2023.
The stolen data is said to contain proprietary information about Google’s software platform and hardware infrastructure that powers the company’s AI supercomputing systems. Ding, a software engineer at Google since 2019, is accused of secretly associating with two Chinese tech firms and intending to aid the Chinese government by misappropriating Google’s trade secrets.
According to court documents, Ding initiated conversations with the CTO of a Chinese tech firm in June 2022. By May 2023, he had privately established an AI and machine-learning company in China, where he served as CEO. The DOJ alleges that Ding pilfered sensitive trade secrets, including information about Google’s custom-built SmartNIC, Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), and Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) chips and systems.
The DOJ further alleges that Ding leaked sensitive software designed for chip communications and future AI innovations to favor the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The DOJ further claims that Ding composed and distributed PowerPoint presentations to his Chinese company’s employees, which cited PRC national policies and talent programs with statements like, “will help China to have computing power infrastructure capabilities that are on par with the international level.”
The FBI is currently investigating the case, and Ding’s guilt has yet to be established. In March 2024, Ding was initially indicted on four counts of trade secrets theft. If convicted on all seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of trade secrets theft, Ding could face up to 175 years in prison and fines of up to $36.75 million. However, the final fine will be determined based on the US Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.
