Ex-Google software engineer gets partial win as AI espionage counts dismissed

Technology Ex-Google software engineer gets partial win as AI espionage counts dismissed A US federal court partially overturned an ex-Google engineer's conviction, dropping economic espionage charges while keeping trade secret theft.

Key points

• Ding was indicted in March 2024, with a superseding indictment filed in February 2025 expanding the charges.
• Prosecutors remarked he joined Google in May 2019 and began stealing confidential information concerning three years afterwards while he was being courted by an early-stage Chinese technology business.
• Prosecutors remarked the technology could have assisted Google compete with cloud-computing rivals such as Amazon and Microsoft while reducing its reliance on Nvidia chips.
• The economic espionage charges each carried a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $5 million fine.
• According to the court docket, Ding is scheduled to be sentenced on September 1.

While upholding seven convictions for stealing trade secrets, a federal judge has overturned the seven economic espionage convictions of former Google software engineer Linwei Ding, additionally known as Leon Ding.

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco ruled Tuesday that prosecutors failed to present sufficient evidence showing Ding knew or intended that his actions would benefit the Chinese administration.

Nevertheless, the judge identified ample evidence to backing the trade-secret theft convictions.

Ding was convicted in January after an 11-day trial. Prosecutors accused him of copying thousands of pages of confidential information related to the hardware infrastructure and software platforms applied by Google's supercomputing data centers to train substantial artificial intelligence models.

Three weeks after the trial, Ding's lawyers asked the court to acquit him, arguing that the Justice Department had failed to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

In practice, the stolen information allegedly included chip blueprints and details of Google's data-center infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the economic espionage charges each carried a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $5 million fine. The trade-secret charges carry up to 10 years in prison and a $250, 000 fine per count.

In practice, the ruling removes the potential 15-year sentence attached to each of the seven economic espionage counts, but Ding still faces sentencing on the seven trade-secret convictions.

In practice, an attorney for Ding remarked he was gratified by the ruling. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Google, which is owned by Alphabet, was not charged in the case and has remarked it cooperated with law enforcement.

Hafsa Naeem is an entertainment reporter specialising in K-dramas, films, and celebrity-driven stories. She explores global content trends and audience engagement, delivering accessible coverage that captures the emotional and cultural impact of entertainment throughout diverse viewership.

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