The United States has sanctioned five Chinese companies linked to a former Google engineer accused of stealing confidential artificial intelligence (AI) technology from the Silicon Valley giant.
The State Department said on Oct. 19 that it designated Shanghai Zhisuan Technology, a Shanghai-based startup that develops software to support training large AI models, as one of the sanctioned companies. The tech company’s founder and CEO, Ding Linwei, was convicted in January of stealing Google’s trade secrets for Chinese competitors.
The sanctions also apply to MiraclePlus, a Chinese venture firm that invested in Zhisuan, along with its three affiliates.
The move comes amid renewed concerns in Washington that Chinese AI developers may have stolen intellectual property from advanced American models as Beijing rushes to catch up with the United States.
The State Department said it determined the theft of trade secrets in this case poses a “serious threat” to U.S. economic, foreign policy, and national security interests.
“Theft of trade secrets related to sensitive and emerging technologies harms U.S. jobs, companies, and investments, and costs U.S. industry billions of dollars each year,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in an Oct. 19 statement.
The sanctions came weeks after Ding was sentenced to roughly one year in prison and two years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay a fine of $2,500 and nearly $190,000 in restitution to Google.
Ding’s case emerged to the public in early 2024 when he was arrested by the FBI at his home in California.
Since joining Google in 2019, Ding worked on a software platform that helped the company’s supercomputers run AI tasks efficiently, giving him access to confidential technical details.
He allegedly stole more than 1,000 documents containing Google’s trade secrets and uploaded them to his personal cloud storage between May 2022 and May 2023, according to a superseding indictment filed in February 2025.
Prosecutors said the targeted files included descriptions of Google’s specialized chips, known as TPUs, designed to perform AI and machine learning, as well as hardware and software designs explaining how the company built and operated its supercomputer.
A motorist rides next to the logo of the Google company in Beijing on Sept. 22, 2026. (Adek Berry/AFP via Getty Images)
At the same time, Ding was affiliated with a China-based AI startup called Beijing Rongshu Lianzhi Technology, which prosecutors said he never disclosed to Google.
From early 2023, Ding began preparing to launch his own tech company in China. By May that year, the indictment said, Zhisuan had been established.
“We have experience with Google’s ten-thousand-card computational power platform; we just need to replicate and upgrade it—and then further develop a computational power platform suited to China’s national conditions,” Ding wrote in a document promoting his company on the Chinese social media platform WeChat, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors said Ding secured a $700,000 investment from MiraclePlus in exchange for a 7 percent ownership stake in his startup.
In December 2023, before resigning from Google, Ding allegedly downloaded more documents containing information on Google’s confidential technology, ranging from basic software designs to advanced AI and machine learning applications. Google terminated his network access before he could upload the files, according to the court document.
The State Department said it determined Zhisuan “has knowingly engaged in, or benefitted from, significant theft of trade secrets” of the United States.
Authorities accused MiraclePlus of providing “significant financial, material, or technological support” for the theft of U.S. trade secrets and benefiting from it.
A visitor walks past an AI billboard while attending the PT Expo in Beijing on Sept. 22, 2026. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
Other names on the sanctions list include two capital funds managed by MiraclePlus: Beijing Qiji Chuangtan Phase I Venture Capital Center Limited Partnership and Beijing Qiji Chuangtan Phase II Venture Capital Center Limited Partnership.
Also blacklisted was Beijing Qiji Chuangtan Zhiyuan Enterprise Management Center Limited Partnership, a China-based entity controlled by MiraclePlus.
The five entities have been added to a Treasury Department blacklist known as the Non-SDN Menu-Based Sanctions List. The move blocks the companies’ U.S.-based property and limits their access to U.S. capital markets. Americans are barred from purchasing large amounts of equity or debt instruments.
