--- title: Ex-Google engineer’s espionage convictions overturned,... description: A federal judge overturned seven economic espionage convictions against former Google engineer Linwei Ding, ruling prosecutors failed to prove he intended to... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/ex-google-engineer-s-espionage-convictions-overturned-theft-convictions-stand-lr6xgsbrs twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Ex-Google engineer’s espionage convictions overturned, theft convictions stand | daily.dev og:description: A federal judge overturned seven economic espionage convictions against former Google engineer Linwei Ding, ruling prosecutors failed to prove he intended to... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/ex-google-engineer-s-espionage-convictions-overturned-theft-convictions-stand-lr6xgsbrs og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Lr6XgSBRS.png og:image:alt: Ex-Google engineer’s espionage convictions overturned, theft convictions stand og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Ex-Google engineer’s espionage convictions overturned, theft convictions stand **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A federal judge overturned seven economic espionage convictions against former Google engineer Linwei Ding, ruling prosecutors failed to prove he intended to benefit the Chinese government, while seven trade secret theft convictions remain intact. Ding had been convicted on all 14 counts for exfiltrating thousands of pages of confidential material on Google's AI infrastructure, including TPU hardware blueprints and LLM training software. The ruling removes the heavier espionage exposure (up to 15 years per count) but leaves theft charges (up to 10 years each) standing, with sentencing set for September 1. The case is tied to broader US government efforts framing AI trade secret theft as a national security issue amid other enforcement actions against an Nvidia employee and Super Micro's co-founder. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What happened with the Linwei Ding Google trade secret case and espionage charges? A federal judge overturned seven economic espionage convictions against former Google engineer Linwei Ding, ruling prosecutors did not prove he intended to benefit the Chinese government, while seven trade secret theft convictions stand. Ding had been convicted on all 14 counts in January after removing confidential material on Google's AI infrastructure, including tensor processing unit hardware blueprints and LLM training software. Sentencing is set for September 1, with up to 10 years possible per remaining count. _Follow how courts are drawing lines around AI trade secret disputes on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Ex-Google engineer convicted of stealing AI secrets](https://daily.dev/posts/ex-google-engineer-convicted-of-stealing-ai-secrets-iyx9xzwoh) · The Register · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Intel says star hire from TSMC didn’t steal secrets](https://daily.dev/posts/intel-says-star-hire-from-tsmc-didn-t-steal-secrets-nw4xsawel) · The Verge · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Offenders sentenced up to 10 years for spying on TSMC](https://daily.dev/posts/offenders-sentenced-up-to-10-years-for-spying-on-tsmc-f6c3vpyvt) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Taiwan detains an Nvidia employee as its chip-smuggling probe reaches the chipmaker](https://daily.dev/posts/taiwan-detains-an-nvidia-employee-as-its-chip-smuggling-probe-reaches-the-chipmaker-ixe0yxreo) · The Next Web · 1 upvotes · 2 comments --- Tags: [#google](https://daily.dev/tags/google), [#legal](https://daily.dev/tags/legal), [#ai-security](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-security) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/ex-google-engineer-s-espionage-convictions-overturned-theft-convictions-stand-lr6xgsbrs) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Ex-Google engineer’s espionage convictions overturned, theft convictions stand","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/ex-google-engineer-s-espionage-convictions-overturned-theft-convictions-stand-lr6xgsbrs","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/ex-google-engineer-s-espionage-convictions-overturned-theft-convictions-stand-lr6xgsbrs"},"datePublished":"2026-08-21T08:51:23.554Z","dateModified":"2026-08-21T08:51:45.235Z","description":"A federal judge overturned seven economic espionage convictions against former Google engineer Linwei Ding, ruling prosecutors failed to prove he intended to...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d820dc5a75d3d04d2ceef4c94cebe661?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d820dc5a75d3d04d2ceef4c94cebe661?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/ex-google-engineer-s-espionage-convictions-overturned-theft-convictions-stand-lr6xgsbrs","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"google,legal,ai-security","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Ex-Google engineer’s espionage convictions overturned, theft convictions stand"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/ex-google-engineer-s-espionage-convictions-overturned-theft-convictions-stand-lr6xgsbrs#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What happened with the Linwei Ding Google trade secret case and espionage charges?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"A federal judge overturned seven economic espionage convictions against former Google engineer Linwei Ding, ruling prosecutors did not prove he intended to benefit the Chinese government, while seven trade secret theft convictions stand. Ding had been convicted on all 14 counts in January after removing confidential material on Google's AI infrastructure, including tensor processing unit hardware blueprints and LLM training software. Sentencing is set for September 1, with up to 10 years possible per remaining count. Follow how courts are drawing lines around AI trade secret disputes on daily.dev."}}]} ```