South Korea Charges 10 Over Alleged Leak of Advanced Chip Technology to China’s CXMT
GeokHub
Contributing Writer
SEOUL, Dec 26 — South Korean authorities have indicted 10 people accused of leaking sensitive memory chip manufacturing technology to China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), a breach prosecutors say helped accelerate China’s development of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a key component for artificial intelligence computing.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said five suspects — including a former Samsung Electronics executive and several engineers — were charged and detained for violating South Korea’s industrial technology protection law, while another five were charged but released on bail.
Prosecutors said one former Samsung researcher, who later joined CXMT, hand-copied hundreds of steps of proprietary DRAM manufacturing processes before leaving the company. The notes allegedly detailed equipment specifications, production sequencing and yield optimisation techniques, and were later used to reconstruct CXMT’s manufacturing flow.
Investigators also found that CXMT obtained additional DRAM-related technology from SK Hynix through a supplier, further speeding up its technical progress.
Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and CXMT declined to comment. Prosecutors did not name the companies in their initial statement but later confirmed the identities to Reuters.
Strategic Technology at the Centre
The leaked information involved 10-nanometre DRAM processes, technology prosecutors said Samsung had spent 1.6 trillion won ($1.2 billion) developing and was the only company to have commercialised at the time.
Authorities said CXMT adapted and validated the stolen data to fit its own equipment, enabling the company to achieve 10-nanometre DRAM production in 2023 — the first such milestone reached by a Chinese firm.
That breakthrough, prosecutors added, laid the foundation for CXMT’s subsequent development of high-bandwidth memory, a critical chip technology used in AI accelerators and data centres.
The financial damage to South Korean companies was estimated at tens of trillions of won, according to prosecutors.
Rising Stakes in the Global Chip Race
CXMT, which is reportedly preparing for a Shanghai stock market listing at a valuation of around $42 billion, last month unveiled its latest DDR5 DRAM, intensifying competition with South Korea’s dominant memory chipmakers.
The case underscores rising tensions in the global semiconductor industry, as governments tighten controls on technology transfers amid concerns over economic security and strategic competition linked to artificial intelligence.
