US sanctions Lu Qi's MiraclePlus and ex-Google engineer's startup Zhisuan under PAIPA over stolen AI trade secrets

Why it matters

【Key points】

On Monday Oct 19 (US time), the US State Department designated five Chinese entities under the Protecting American Intellectual Property Act (PAIPA) for theft of US trade secrets, and Treasury's OFAC added them to its Non-SDN Menu-Based Sanctions List.

1. Shanghai Zhisuan Technology: per State, founded in 2023 by former Google engineer Linwei Ding and marketed as a platform to accelerate ML workloads, including training large "super intelligence" models.

2. MiraclePlus (Qiji Chuangtan, the startup incubator and VC founded by ex-Microsoft executive Lu Qi), plus two of its funds and one wholly owned entity. State says Ding pitched Zhisuan at MiraclePlus's startup camp on his knowledge of Google's internal systems, claiming he could replicate Google's SI infrastructure for "China's national conditions", and MiraclePlus took an equity stake for seed capital. State found Zhisuan benefited from the theft and MiraclePlus gave significant support.

3. Measures: blocked property and transactions; US bank loans capped at $10M per 12 months; FX and banking transfers barred; no significant US investment in their equity or debt. A general license allows wind-down until Jan 19, 2027.

【Verifiable】

State Department fact sheet: https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesman/2026/10/imposing-sanctions-to-protect-americans-from-intellectual-property-theft-fact-sheet/

OFAC notice: https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20261019

【Our read】

1. The US is extending AI trade-secret cases from individuals to their investors: one of China's most active early-stage incubators and the funds it manages are now sanctioned.

2. MiraclePlus backs many Chinese AI startups; dealing with it gets costlier for US money and partners, and spillover to its portfolio depends on enforcement and compliance calls.

3. The same day (Oct 19), DHS ordered DeepSeek products removed from federal systems: two US moves against Chinese AI within a day.