Ex-Google engineer Ding Linwei convicted of stealing AI secrets for Chinese companies

South China Morning PostCenter-RightEN 1 min read 100% complete by ReutersJanuary 30, 2026 at 10:30 PM

AI Summary

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Former Google software engineer Ding Linwei, a Chinese national, was convicted in San Francisco on Thursday by a federal jury for stealing AI trade secrets from Google. The US Department of Justice announced the conviction, which included seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets. Ding, also known as Leon Ding, was found to have stolen thousands of pages of confidential information to benefit two Chinese companies he was secretly working for. He faces significant prison time and fines, with each economic espionage charge carrying a maximum 15-year prison term and US$5 million fine. Ding's status conference is scheduled for February 3. He was originally indicted in March 2024, with expanded charges added in February.

Key Entities & Roles

Key Player Opposition Context

DeepSeek 30% Leon Ding 40% United States 60% San Francisco 60% China 70% United States Department of Justice ×270% Google 80% Ding Linwei ×590%

Keywords

ai trade secrets 100% economic espionage 90% theft of trade secrets 90% ding linwei 80% google 70% chinese companies 60% conviction 50% software engineer 40%

Sentiment Analysis

Negative

Score: -0.30

Source Transparency

Source

South China Morning Post

Political Lean

Center-Right (0.50)

Far LeftCenterFar Right

Classification Confidence

90%

This article was automatically classified using rule-based analysis. The political bias score ranges from -1 (far left) to +1 (far right).

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ai trade secrets economic espionage theft of trade secrets ding linwei google chinese companies conviction software engineer

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