The U.S. State Department determined that Shanghai Zhisuan Technology knowingly engaged in or benefited from significant theft of U.S. trade secrets occurring on or after January 5, 2023.

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U.S. prosecutors stated that former Google software engineer Ding Linwei was affiliated with China-based artificial intelligence startup Beijing Rongshu Lianzhi Technology without disclosing the relationship to Google.

On October 20, 2026, China's Commerce Ministry expressed firm opposition to the U.S. sanctions on the five Chinese companies, describing the act as egregious and warning that Beijing would take necessary measures.

A federal judge sentenced Ding Linwei to 12 months in prison, two years of supervised release, a $2,500 fine, and nearly $190,000 in restitution to Google, while dismissing economic espionage charges.

The U.S. Justice Department is appealing the federal judge's dismissal of the economic espionage charges against Ding Linwei.

According to court filings, Ding Linwei promoted Shanghai Zhisuan Technology on WeChat by stating the company aimed to replicate and upgrade Google's ten-thousand-card computational power platform for Chinese national conditions.

On October 19, 2026, the U.S. State Department imposed sanctions under the Protecting American Intellectual Property Act on five Chinese entities linked to former Google software engineer Ding Linwei.

Former Google software engineer Ding Linwei was convicted in January 2026 in San Francisco federal court on multiple counts of stealing AI trade secrets from Google.

The U.S. State Department determined that the theft of trade secrets in the Google case poses a serious threat to U.S. economic, foreign policy, and national security interests.

U.S. prosecutors alleged that between May 2022 and May 2023, Ding Linwei stole over 1,000 confidential Google documents describing Tensor Processing Unit AI chips and supercomputer platform software designs.

In an October 19, 2026 statement, U.S. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott stated that trade secret theft involving sensitive technologies harms U.S. industry and costs billions of dollars annually.

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