Linwei Ding, 38, a Chinese national and resident of Newark, California, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on seven counts of economic espionage and theft of trade secrets, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California announced on Tuesday.
Initially indicted in March 2024 on four counts of trade secret theft, the new indictment alleges that Ding stole over 1,000 confidential files from Google between May 2022 and May 2023 while secretly working for two People’s Republic of China-based technology companies. The stolen materials included critical information about Google’s Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) chips, Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) systems, and associated software.
To conceal the theft, Ding reportedly copied data from Google source files into the Apple Notes app on his company-issued MacBook, converted them into PDFs, and uploaded them to a separate account. In June 2022, Ding began discussions to become the chief technology officer for a China-based startup. By May 2023, he had founded his own artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning company in China, where he served as CEO.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Ding circulated a PowerPoint presentation to employees that referenced Chinese national policies supporting AI development. He also used the presentation as part of an application to a talent program in Shanghai, stating that his company’s product would help China develop computing infrastructure at international standards.
