Skip to content

GitLab

Open
Created by Myles Webster@myleswebster7Maintainer

Superseding Indictment Charges Chinese National in Relation to Alleged Plan to Steal Proprietary AI Technology


A.gov website comes from a main government organization in the United States.

Secure.gov websites utilize HTTPS A lock (Lock Locked padlock) or https:// indicates you've securely linked to the.gov site. Share delicate details just on official, safe and secure sites.

- About - The Chief law officer - Organizational Chart - Budget & Performance - History

  1. Office of Public Affairs
  2. News
  3. Press Releases
  4. Superseding Indictment Charges Chinese National In Relation To Alleged Plan To Steal Proprietary AI Technology

    MENU News

    - All News
  • Blogs
  • Photo Galleries
  • Podcasts - Press Releases
  • Speeches
  • Videos

    Archived Press Releases

    Archived News

    Para Notícias en Español

    Superseding Indictment Charges Chinese National in Relation to Alleged Plan to Steal Proprietary AI Technology

    - Facebook
  • X. - LinkedIn.
  • Email

    Note: View the superseding indictment here.

    A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment today charging Linwei Ding, also called Leon Ding, 38, with seven counts of economic espionage and 7 counts of theft of trade secrets in connection with an alleged strategy to steal from Google LLC (Google) exclusive details connected to AI innovation.

    Ding was at first arraigned in March 2024 on four counts of theft of trade secrets. The superseding indictment returned today explains 7 categories of trade secrets stolen by Ding and charges Ding with 7 counts of financial espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets.

    According to the superseding indictment, Google worked with Ding as a software engineer in 2019. Between around May 2022 and May 2023, Ding submitted more than 1,000 special files containing Google private details from Google's network to his personal Google Cloud account, consisting of the trade tricks alleged in the superseding indictment.

    While Ding was utilized by Google, he secretly associated himself with two People's Republic of China (PRC)- based technology business. Around June 2022, Ding remained in discussions to be the Chief Technology Officer for an early-stage innovation company based in the PRC. By May 2023, Ding had actually established his own technology company concentrated on AI and artificial intelligence in the PRC and was acting as the business's CEO.

    The superseding indictment alleges that Ding meant to benefit the PRC government by taking trade secrets from Google. Ding supposedly stole technology relating to the hardware infrastructure and platform that enables Google's supercomputing data center to train and serve large AI models. The trade secrets contain detailed details about the architecture and functionality of Google's Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) chips and systems and utahsyardsale.com Google's Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) systems, the software that allows the chips to interact and perform tasks, and genbecle.com the software that orchestrates countless chips into a supercomputer capable of training and performing cutting-edge AI workloads. The trade secrets likewise pertain to Google's custom-designed SmartNIC, a kind of network interface card used to enhance Google's GPU, high performance, and cloud networking items.

    As alleged, Ding distributed a PowerPoint discussion to staff members of his technology business mentioning PRC nationwide policies encouraging the development of the domestic AI industry. He also produced a PowerPoint presentation containing an application to a PRC talent program based in Shanghai. The superseding indictment explains how PRC-sponsored skill programs incentivize individuals engaged in research study and development outside the PRC to send that knowledge and research study to the PRC in exchange for salaries, research study funds, laboratory space, or other rewards. Ding's application for the talent program stated that his business's item "will help China to have calculating power infrastructure capabilities that are on par with the international level."

    If convicted, surgiteams.com Ding faces an optimum charge of 10 years in jail and approximately a $250,000 fine for each trade-secret count and 15 years in jail and $5,000,000 fine for each economic-espionage count. A federal district court judge will figure out any sentence after thinking about the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory elements.

    The FBI is investigating the case.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys Casey Boome and Molly K. Priedeman for the Northern District of California and Trial Attorneys Stephen Marzen and Yifei Zheng of the National Security Division's Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

    Today's action was coordinated through the Justice and Commerce Departments' Disruptive Technology Strike Force. The Disruptive Technology Strike Force is an interagency police strike force co-led by the Departments of Justice and Commerce developed to target illicit actors, safeguard supply chains, and avoid important technology from being obtained by authoritarian programs and hostile nation-states.

    A superseding indictment is simply a claims. All offenders are presumed innocent up until tested guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.