Former Apple engineer sentenced to prison for stealing Project Titan trade secrets

Former Apple engineer Xiaolang Zhang, who pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets related to Apple's Project Titan, has been sentenced to 120 days in prison and three years of supervised release.

Additionally, Zhang has been ordered to pay restitution of $146,984.00. The case, which has been ongoing for six years, began when Zhang took parental leave from Apple in 2018 and later moved to China to join XMotors, a startup working on autonomous vehicle technology.

Apple initiated an investigation after noticing suspicious behavior, leading to the discovery that Zhang had stolen sensitive files, including engineering schematics for autonomous vehicle circuit boards.

Despite initially pleading not guilty, Zhang ultimately admitted to the charges in August 2022.