JAKARTA - South Korean prosecutors have officially charged 10 people with allegedly leaking memory chip manufacturing technology in South Korea to Chinese manufacturer ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT).
This case is considered very serious because it involves key technology used for the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office has detained five suspects, including former executives and engineers from Samsung Electronics.
Meanwhile, five other suspects have been charged, but they are still allowed to breathe free air on bail. The suspects are accused of violating South Korea's very strict industrial technology protection laws.
A former Samsung researcher is alleged to have copied hundreds of DRAM manufacturing process steps manually after joining CXMT. The handwritten notes contain detailed process recipes that include equipment specifications to optimize production results.
This stolen data was then used to reconstruct the entire manufacturing process at CXMT's production facilities in China. The investigation also revealed that CXMT obtained additional technology from SK Hynix through a third-party supplier channel.
This is suspected of accelerating China's ability to illegally produce high-bandwidth memory. Samsung is reported to have spent around 1.6 trillion won (Rp18.6 trillion) to develop the 10-nanometer DRAM process.
The prosecutor said that Samsung was the only company in the world that had successfully commercialized the technology when the theft occurred. As a result of this leak, CXMT managed to achieve 10-nanometer DRAM production in 2023 which was the first achievement for the company in China.
The losses suffered by Samsung Electronics are estimated to reach tens of trillions of won. Until now, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and CXMT have refused to provide official comments.
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