WILMINGTON, Delaware, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Former Google software engineer Linwei Ding was convicted by a federal jury in San Francisco on Thursday ​of stealing AI trade secrets from the U.S. tech giant to ‌benefit two Chinese companies he was secretly working for, the U.S. Department of Justice said ‌on Thursday. Ding, a 38-year-old Chinese national, was found guilty after an 11-day trial of seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of theft of trade secrets for stealing thousands of pages of confidential information. Each economic espionage charge carries ⁠a maximum 15-year prison term ‌and $5 million fine, while each trade secrets charge carries a maximum 10-year term and $250,000 fine. Ding was ​originally indicted in March 2024 on four counts of theft of trade secrets. Prosecutors said Ding joined Google in ‍May 2019 and ⁠began his thefts three years later, when he was being courted to join an early-stage Chinese technology company.