February 20, 2026
Spy Games & Snapdragon Side‑Eye
Silicon Valley engineers were indicted for allegedly sending secrets to Iran
Engineers busted: Reddit screams “Qualcomm” as loyalty wars ignite
TLDR: Three San Jose engineers were indicted for allegedly stealing chip secrets from Google and a mystery “Company 2” and sending them to Iran. Comments erupted over whether it’s clearly Qualcomm, whether cameras defeat corporate security, and whether this fuels unfair suspicion of immigrants versus calls for tougher penalties.
Three Silicon Valley engineers were indicted for allegedly stealing chip secrets from Google and a mystery “Company 2” and funneling them to Iran—and the internet went full detective mode. The top hot take: it’s “obviously Qualcomm,” with threads playing Guess-The-Mystery-Megacorp and side-eyeing Snapdragon like it’s the lead in a true-crime doc. Meanwhile, Google flexed that it caught the scheme with routine monitoring, but commenters cackled that photos of screens are the ultimate corporate kryptonite: you can lock documents, but you can’t lock the camera roll.
Then the culture war exploded. One camp warned against painting immigrants as spies, with users pushing back hard—“Logic doesn’t make sense unless you think all immigrants are spies.” Another camp equated the case to broader “loyalty” decay, dropping philosophy bombs about post-modernism and morality, turning a tech story into a late-night debate club.
Legal nerdery also went off: critics grumbled about the “web of charges,” from conspiracy to obstruction, asking if the system just stacks penalties to scare people. And yes, the alleged Telegram channels named after their first names sparked meme-grade mockery—OPSEC level: kindergarten.
Bottom line: chips, cameras, and culture clash. The facts are dry; the comments are spicy. And the biggest mystery—did “Company 2” just get subtweeted by the entire internet?
Key Points
- •A federal grand jury indicted three San Jose engineers for allegedly stealing trade secrets from Google and other firms and transferring sensitive processor data to Iran.
- •Defendants Samaneh and Soroor Ghandali (formerly at Google) and Mohammadjavad Khosravi (at Company 2) face conspiracy, trade secret theft, and obstruction charges in the Northern District of California.
- •Prosecutors allege hundreds of confidential files on processor security and cryptography were obtained, including proprietary information related to SoC platforms such as the Snapdragon series.
- •Google says it detected the activity via routine security monitoring, implemented safeguards (restricted access, 2FA, logging), and alerted law enforcement.
- •Authorities allege concealment tactics included routing files via a third-party platform, copying to personal devices, photographing screens, and accessing the data while in Iran.