South Korean authorities have charged 10 individuals for allegedly leaking advanced memory chip technology to Chinese firm ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), a move prosecutors say aided China’s progress in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for artificial intelligence computing.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office confirmed that five of the accused, including a former Samsung Electronics executive and engineers, are in custody for violating South Korea’s industrial technology protection law. The remaining five were charged but released on bail.
Prosecutors said a former Samsung researcher, who was leaving to join CXMT, copied hundreds of steps of proprietary DRAM manufacturing processes by hand. These detailed notes covered equipment specifications, sequencing, and yield optimisation, which were later used by CXMT to recreate the manufacturing workflow.
Investigators also found that CXMT obtained additional DRAM technology from SK Hynix through a supplier, speeding up its development efforts. Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and CXMT declined to comment on the case.
The stolen technology involved 10-nanometre DRAM processes, which Samsung had invested 1.6 trillion won to develop. At the time, Samsung was the only company to have commercialised this technology. Prosecutors said CXMT adapted and validated the stolen data for its equipment, achieving 10-nanometre DRAM production in 2023, a first for a Chinese company.
The illicit use of the technology reportedly laid the foundation for CXMT’s HBM development. Losses for South Korean companies, including Samsung, are estimated at tens of trillions of won.
CXMT, which is preparing for a Shanghai listing with a valuation of $42 billion, recently launched its latest DRAM generation, DDR5, directly challenging its South Korean competitors.
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