経済スパイ罪7件が破棄された元Googleエンジニア、営業秘密侵害は有罪

"Not only does this case mark the first-ever conviction on AI-related economic espionage charges, but it also demonstrates the FBI’s unwavering dedication to protecting American businesses from the increasingly severe threat China poses to our economic and national security."（Roman Rozhavsky 氏のコメント）— 米司法省 公式プレスリリースより

"A federal judge on Thursday tossed part of the conviction of former Google software engineer Linwei Ding, who was found guilty earlier this year of stealing AI trade secrets from the US tech giant to benefit two Chinese companies."／"US District Court Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco ruled there was insufficient evidence Mr. Ding intended or knew his conduct would benefit the government of China, a requirement to convict him on seven counts of economic espionage. Mr. Chhabria said evidence supported the guilty verdict on the theft of trade secrets."／"Mr. Ding, a Chinese national, was found guilty in January after an 11-day trial of seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets for stealing thousands of pages of confidential information."（本文）— Reuters 配信記事より

"Ding faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for each count of theft of trade secrets in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1832 and 15 years in prison for each count of economic espionage in violation of 18 U.S.C § 1831."／"Any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the Court only after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553."（本文）— 米司法省 公式プレスリリースより

"Each economic espionage charge carries a maximum 15-year prison term and $5 million fine, while each trade secrets charge carries a maximum 10-year term and $250,000 fine."／"US District Court Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco ruled there was insufficient evidence Mr. Ding intended or knew his conduct would benefit the government of China, a requirement to convict him on seven counts of economic espionage."（本文）— Reuters 配信記事より

"Ding also secretly affiliated himself with two PRC-based technology companies while he was employed by Google: around June 2022, Ding was in discussions to be the Chief Technology Officer for an early-stage technology company based in the PRC; by early 2023, Ding was in the process of founding his own technology company in the PRC focused on AI and machine learning and was acting as the company’s CEO."／"In presentations to investors, Ding called out the PRC’s national policies prioritizing AI development and innovation in the PRC, and in late 2023 Ding applied for a government sponsored “talent plan” in Shanghai, PRC."／"Ding’s application for this talent plan stated that he planned to “help China to have computing power infrastructure capabilities that are on par with the international level.”"／"The evidence at trial also showed that Ding intended to benefit two entities controlled by the government of China by assisting with the development of an AI supercomputer and collaborating on the research and development of custom machine learning chips."（本文）— 米司法省 公式プレスリリースより

"Three weeks after the trial, Mr. Ding’s lawyers filed papers seeking his acquittal, arguing the Justice Department failed to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt."（本文）— Reuters 配信記事より

"The jury found that Ding stole trade secrets relating to the hardware infrastructure and software platforms that allow Google’s supercomputing data center to train and serve large AI models."／"The trade secrets contained detailed information about the architecture and functionality of Google’s custom Tensor Processing Unit chips and systems and Google’s Graphics Processing Unit systems, the software that allows the chips to communicate and execute tasks, and the software that orchestrates thousands of chips into a supercomputer capable of training and executing cutting-edge AI workloads."／"The trade secrets also pertained to Google’s custom-designed SmartNIC, a type of network interface card used to facilitate high speed communication within Google’s AI supercomputers and cloud networking products."（本文）— 米司法省 公式プレスリリースより

"Some of the allegedly stolen chip blueprints were meant to give Google, owned by Alphabet, an edge over cloud computing rivals Amazon.com and Microsoft, which design their own, and reduce Google’s reliance on chips from Nvidia."（本文）— Reuters 配信記事より

"According to the evidence presented at trial, between approximately May 2022 and April 2023, while a Google employee, Ding stole more than two thousand pages of confidential information containing Google’s AI trade secrets from Google’s network and uploaded them to his personal Google Cloud account."／"In December 2023, less than two weeks before he resigned from Google, Ding downloaded the stolen Google trade secrets to his own personal computer."（本文）— 米司法省 公式プレスリリースより

"Prosecutors said Mr. Ding joined Google in May 2019 and began his thefts three years later, when he was being courted to join an early-stage Chinese technology company."（本文）— Reuters 配信記事より

"Mr. Ding is scheduled to be sentenced on September 1, according to the court docket."／"An attorney for Mr. Ding, also known as Leon Ding, said he was gratified with the ruling. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment."／"Mr. Ding was originally indicted in March 2024 and a superseding indictment in February 2025 expanded the charges."／"Google was not charged and has said it cooperated with law enforcement. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment."（本文）— Reuters 配信記事より