US sanctions 5 Chinese entities tied to ex-Google engineer who stole TPU cluster secrets

rohanpaul_ai · x · 2026-10-20

The US State Department sanctioned 5 Chinese entities tied to former Google engineer Linwei Ding under the Protecting American Intellectual Property Act (PAIPA), including the investor behind his startup.

• Ding founded Shanghai Zhisuan Technology in 2023 to build software that speeds up ML training on supercomputing chips; he told Beijing incubator MiraclePlus his startup could replicate Google's AI infrastructure, and MiraclePlus took equity for seed capital.
• The stolen material covered how Google turns thousands of TPU/GPU chips into supercomputers — knowledge especially valuable in China, where export controls make efficient use of scarce chips a key bottleneck.
• The designated entities face asset freezes, bans on transactions with US persons, and limits on financial services and forex licenses.
• The criminal case narrowed at trial: the judge overturned all 7 economic espionage counts for lack of evidence Ding knew his conduct would benefit the Chinese government, leaving 7 theft convictions and a sentence of 12 months minus 1 day.

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