The lawsuit states that Gupta claims to have disposed of the drive by 'throwing it out in his household trash.' The location of the second drive, referred to in the lawsuit as the Western Digital Drive, is still unknown by Intel. Gupta later admitted to having the drive, referred to as the Seagate Drive in the lawsuit, and turned it over to Microsoft, according to the lawsuit. Initially, Gupta claimed that he did not know where one of the drives was, according to the lawsuit. Forensic analysis ultimately showed that Gupta had taken thousands of Intel documents, placed them on one or more of at least two USB drives (including the Seagate Drive), and accessed them on multiple dates throughout his employment by Microsoft.' The lawsuit states, 'Through Intel's investigation, with the assistance of Microsoft, Intel began to discover the full breadth of Gupta's misappropriation. The lawsuit states that Microsoft determined that Gupta plugged one of the USB drives in question into a Microsoft-issued laptop. Microsoft and Intel have worked together to investigate the situation. Gupta had no way of knowing this information but for his access to it during his employment at Intel. Gupta knew Intel's confidential technical and manufacturing capabilities, customized product offerings, marketing strategies, and pricing for Xeon processors, and used that confidential information and trade secrets to gain an unfair advantage over Intel in the negotiations concerning product specifications and pricing. As a purchaser of Intel's processors, Microsoft's rational objective would be to negotiate the most advanced technical features at the lowest achievable price.

In his new role at Microsoft, Gupta used the confidential information and trade secrets he misappropriated from Intel, deploying that information in head-to-head negotiations with Intel concerning customized product design and pricing for significant volumes of Xeon processors. Four days after leaving Intel, Gupta began working for Microsoft Corporation ('Microsoft') as a Principal of Strategic Planning in Microsoft's Cloud and Artificial Intelligence department.

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