MiraclePlus, founded by Lu Qi, sanctioned by the US: Former Google engineer's theft case implicates 5 Chinese entities

Beating AI News Insight: The U.S. Treasury Department on October 19 added MiraclePlus, founded by Lu Qi, and three of its affiliated entities to its sanctions list. Shanghai Zhisuan Technology was also sanctioned in the same batch, bringing the total number of Chinese entities targeted to five. Sanctions include freezing assets under U.S. jurisdiction, restricting financial transactions, and prohibiting U.S. persons from making certain equity and debt investments. The sanctions stem from the trade secret theft case of former Google engineer Ding Linwei. The U.S. Department of Justice said Ding secretly uploaded more than 2,000 pages of internal Google documents during his tenure, covering TPUs, GPUs, and AI supercomputing infrastructure. Ding later founded Shanghai Zhisuan Technology, and when pitching projects at MiraclePlus’s startup camp, he claimed to be able to replicate Google’s AI supercomputing technology. The U.S. State Department disclosed that MiraclePlus provided seed funding to Ding and received equity in his company, leading to its designation as having provided significant support to the relevant trade secret theft activities. In January this year, a jury found Ding guilty of seven counts of trade secret theft. However, a judge in August dismissed seven additional counts of economic espionage, ruling there was insufficient evidence to prove he intended to benefit the Chinese government. The U.S. Treasury Department allows MiraclePlus and its three affiliated entities to wind down existing transactions gradually under a transitional license until January 19, 2027.