Samsung executives and employees indicted over leaking 10nm DRAM technology to China

China could be the next major player in the DRAM market, thanks to technology allegedly misappropriated from Samsung.

Despite the United States’ efforts to tighten its grip on the sale of advanced semiconductors and machinery to China, the country is striving to narrow the technology gap between domestically produced chips and those imported from TSMC and Nvidia. Needless to say, an old but effective trick for this is tempting a high-ranking executive with a fat paycheck.

The Elec, a South Korean outlet, reported that a group of former Samsung executives and employees has been indicted for leaking 10nm DRAM technology to China.

The Information Technology Crime Investigation Department of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office has arrested a current executive at China’s Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT). The individual, a former Samsung Electronics employee, is accused of having overseen the development of 10-nanometer DRAM technology at CXMT. In addition, four other CXMT employees have also been arrested as part of the investigation.

China’s CXMT reportedly recruited several key executives and engineers from Samsung Electronics, who allegedly transferred proprietary DRAM technology to their new employer. These actions are said to have contributed to the mass production of China’s first domestically developed DRAM in 2023, reportedly based on technology misappropriated from Samsung.

In one case, a former Samsung Electronics researcher reportedly transferred hundreds of handwritten documents detailing Samsung’s 10-nanometer DRAM technology to CXMT after joining the Chinese company in 2016. Prosecutors say that the financial damage to the country’s semiconductor producers could amount to billions of dollars.

South Korean prosecutors claim that the Chinese government has invested more than $1.7 billion in CXMT, the country’s first and only domestic DRAM producer. These efforts are part of the Chinese government’s and domestic companies’ push to reduce dependence on foreign hardware suppliers and achieve self-sufficiency.

Also, the news of a leak of Samsung’s DRAM technology comes as the DRAM market faces steep price increases and rapidly declining inventories.