[MiraclePlus Founded by Lu Qi Faces U.S. Sanctions: Former Google Engineer's Trade Secret Theft Case Implicates Five Chinese Entities] Beating AI News Flash: On October 19, the U.S. Department of the Treasury added MiraclePlus, founded by Lu Qi, along with three affiliated entities, to its sanctions list. Also sanctioned in the same batch was Shanghai Zhisu Technology, bringing the total to five Chinese entities. The sanctions include freezing assets under U.S. jurisdiction, restricting financial transactions, and prohibiting U.S. persons from engaging in specific equity and debt investments. The sanctions stem from the trade secret theft case involving former Google engineer Ding Linwei. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Ding privately uploaded over 2,000 pages of internal Google documents during his tenure, covering TPU, GPU chips, and AI supercomputing infrastructure. Ding later founded Shanghai Zhisu Technology and claimed during a MiraclePlus startup camp pitch that his company could replicate Google's AI supercomputing technology. The U.S. State Department disclosed that MiraclePlus provided seed funding to Ding's company and acquired equity, thereby being identified as providing significant support to the related trade secret theft activities. In January of this year, Ding Linwei was convicted by a jury on seven counts of trade secret theft. However, in August, the judge dismissed an additional seven counts of economic espionage, citing insufficient evidence to prove intent to benefit the Chinese government. The U.S. Treasury Department has allowed MiraclePlus and its three affiliated entities to gradually wind down existing transactions under a transitional license until January 19, 2027. [Original Link]