The U.S. government has sanctioned five Chinese entities, including venture capital firm MiraclePlus, over their alleged connection to the theft of Google’s artificial intelligence trade secrets. The action followed the conviction of former Google engineer Linwei Ding, who was found guilty of stealing thousands of confidential documents about Google’s AI supercomputing technology.
MiraclePlus allegedly provided seed funding to Shanghai Zhisuan Technology, a startup founded by Ding. The firm was founded by former Microsoft executive Lu Qi and succeeded Y Combinator’s China operations.
The U.S. State Department imposed the sanctions under the Protecting American Intellectual Property Act. The law can authorize measures including freezing U.S. assets and restricting access to banking services. The action targets the financial network that allegedly benefited from the stolen intellectual property and marks an escalation in U.S. efforts to protect its technology.