wire / 2026-08-20-3a27
Ex-Google engineer Linwei Ding convicted of stealing AI trade secrets; espionage counts overturned
The trade-secrets conviction stands. The espionage counts came off for lack of evidence about who benefits.
The facts
Former Google engineer Linwei Ding was convicted of stealing thousands of pages of confidential AI trade secrets related to Google's AI hardware and software platforms. While a federal judge overturned his economic espionage convictions due to insufficient evidence of intent to benefit China, the theft of trade secrets conviction remains.