Former Google software engineer Leon Ding was recently found guilty by a federal jury in California on seven counts of trade secret theft and seven counts of economic espionage. Ding was accused of stealing Google's artificial intelligence-related trade secrets for personal gain and to benefit his China-linked companies.

On January 29, 2026, after deliberating for less than three hours, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California found Ding guilty on all fourteen charges brought by prosecutors. Ding was arrested after leaving Google in late 2023. Federal prosecutors alleged that starting in May 2022, Ding secretly downloaded over 14,000 Google documents containing 105 trade secrets related to supercomputing data centers used for training and operating large language models.

The trial commenced on January 12. Prosecutors noted that during the theft period, Ding served as Chief Technology Officer at a Beijing-based technology company and founded another Shanghai-based technology company in November 2022. Google stated it only became aware of his activities in China after he attended an investor meeting in Beijing as CEO in November 2023.

During the defense phase, Ding did not personally testify. His technical expert witness attempted to persuade the jury that the stolen documents were insufficient to replicate Google's technology and held limited value for competitors, but this argument was rejected by the jury.

Following the verdict, Ding's defense attorney Grant Fondo expressed respect for the jury while voicing disappointment with the outcome. The prosecution declined to comment.

As of now, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has not released the full judgment in this case, but has published a press release announcing the verdict on its official website. The relevant link is as follows:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-google-engineer-found-guilty-economic-espionage-and-theft-confidential-ai