A former Google software engineer has been accused by the United States of stealing trade secrets related to artificial intelligence (AI) while secretly working for two Chinese companies.
Lingwei Ding, also known as Leung Ding, was arrested Wednesday after being charged with four crimes in California.
The Chinese national is said to have stolen over 500 classified files.
If convicted, each faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Local media said Ding’s lawyer could not be identified for comment on the case.
The information he is accused of relates to Google’s supercomputing data centre infrastructure used to host and train large-scale AI models.
According to the indictment, Mr. Ding was hired by Google in 2019, and his duties included developing this software.
He allegedly began uploading information stored on his Google network to his personal Google account in May 2022. The indictment says these uploads continued regularly for a year.
Meanwhile, he is said to have spent several months in China working for Beijing Rongzhou Lianzhi Technology.
This company is a start-up technology company that approached him. The indictment says he was offered $14,800 (£11,620) a month for the position of chief technology officer at the company.
He is also said to have founded his own technology company, Shanghai Zhisuan Technology, focused on AI and machine learning, and appointed himself CEO.
Prosecutors claim that Mr. Ding never told Google about his work at both companies.
The indictment states that he applied for assistance from a China-based organization to develop this business and announced it at an investor conference in China in November 2023.
The following month, Mr Ding was flagged by Google for attempting to upload additional files to his PC while in China, but Mr Ding told Google investigators that this was because he worked for the tech giant. He said he wanted to prove that he was there.
After Mr. Ding returned to the United States, he allegedly booked a one-way ticket from San Francisco to Beijing without Google’s knowledge before resigning on December 26.
Days later, Google became suspicious again after learning of his behaviour at the conference, blocked his access, and searched his behavioural history to uncover unauthorized uploads.
Google spokesman Jose Castañeda said the company “takes stringent security measures to prevent the theft of sensitive business information and trade secrets” and that the company has found evidence of suspected wrongdoing.
He added that if he did so, he would immediately notify the authorities.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement on Wednesday that Linwei Ding was seeking to enrich himself by covertly working for companies that were “seeking an edge in the AI technology race”.
“The Justice Department will not tolerate the theft of artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies that could put our national security at risk,” Mr Garland said.