Archive · 21 Aug 2026
Judge Partially Overturns Ex-Google Engineer’s AI Theft Conviction
Linwei Ding used to work as a software engineer at Google.
He was found guilty of taking thousands of pages of secret information about artificial intelligence.
Prosecutors said he wanted to help two Chinese companies.
A jury convicted him of economic espionage and trade-secret theft.
On Thursday, Judge Vince Chhabria changed part of that decision.
The judge said there was not enough proof that Ding meant to help the Chinese government or knew that he would do so.
However, the judge said the evidence still supported the trade-secret theft convictions.
This means part of Ding’s conviction was overturned, but the theft findings remain supported by the ruling.
Judge Vince Chhabria overturned the economic-espionage portion of Linwei Ding’s conviction.
The judge found insufficient evidence that Ding intended or knew his actions would benefit China’s government.
Chhabria said the evidence supported Ding’s convictions for stealing Google trade secrets.
Ding was convicted in January after an 11-day trial involving thousands of confidential pages.
Prosecutors said Ding stole the information to benefit two Chinese companies.
- Who
- Former Google engineer Linwei Ding and U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria.
- What
- A judge partially overturned Ding’s conviction, rejecting the economic-espionage portion while finding support for the trade-secret theft convictions.
- When
- The ruling was issued Thursday; Ding was convicted in January after an 11-day trial.
- Where
- U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
- Why
- The judge found insufficient evidence that Ding intended or knew his conduct would benefit the Chinese government, though evidence supported the theft of Google trade secrets.
- Defendant
- Linwei Ding, a former Google software engineer and Chinese national
- Original conviction
- Seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of trade-secret theft
- Ruling
- The economic-espionage portion was overturned because the evidence did not establish the required intent or knowledge regarding benefit to China’s government
- Remaining finding
- Judge Vince Chhabria said evidence supported the trade-secret theft convictions
- Stolen material
- Thousands of pages of confidential information
- Trial
- An 11-day trial concluded with Ding’s conviction in January
- Alleged beneficiaries
- Two Chinese companies