China poached 27 veterans of Samsung and SK Hynix in a “turnkey” manner and were “trapped and killed”

The outflow of key technical personnel from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix to China has reached extremely worrying levels. 27 people jumped to Chinese competitor Changxin Storage Technology Co., Ltd. It is reported that the vast majority of them were fired after transferring technical know-how to China in a short period of time.

China's talent introduction is carried out in a "turnkey" manner, which means that the brain drain is so comprehensive and multi-dimensional that a semiconductor factory can be operated solely by talents imported from South Korea.

On October 6, the office of Choi Soo-jin, a member of the National Power Party and a member of the National Assembly’s Science, Technology, Information, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, announced that these facts were confirmed through investigation and analysis of the business platform LinkedIn and other sources.

It was found that the 27 people who were transferred to CXMT were all experienced veterans, with an average of 15.4 years of working experience at Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Among them, 6 people were identified as senior managers or supervisor-level personnel with more than 20 years of working experience.

By job function, the lost talents are evenly distributed in various key areas, with circuit design and layout (8 people) being the main ones, followed by process integration (7 people), unit process and equipment technology (4 people), yield and defect analysis (4 people), advanced packaging (2 people), and fab planning and infrastructure (1 person).

The report also revealed some signs that China's talent introduction only focuses on technology absorption. According to reports, 26 of the 27 transferred personnel have left Changxin Storage Company, and their average working experience is only 2.9 years.

The investigation found that a considerable number of employees who left Changxin Storage moved to other companies but remained in the Chinese industry. Among these former Changxin Storage employees, seven have joined companies such as Huawei Hong Kong Research Institute, SMIC, HiSilicon Semiconductor and Chengdu Gaozhen.

The Chinese government is behind this terrible situation. By obtaining and analyzing LinkedIn information from Chinese headhunting companies, they promised to provide the target talents with generous benefits, including a significant salary increase of up to twice the current salary, rental housing and children's education subsidies.

In order to circumvent the non-compete agreement between Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, the channels for brain drain are becoming increasingly complex. Among the 27 people leaked, only 9 people directly jumped to Changxin Storage within 6 months after leaving Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. The remaining 15 people first joined CX Storage through equipment and materials partners, domestic fabless companies, third-country companies, and university research professors.