A South Korean court announced Wednesday that it has sentenced a former Samsung Electronics researcher to seven years in prison. The court found him guilty of illegally sharing valuable semiconductor technology with a Chinese company.
The Seoul Central District Court ruled that the defendant, whose name was withheld and identified only by his surname, broke the Industrial Technology Protection Act. The court determined that the leaked information was a “national core technology” and that he had actively planned the breach.
The 56-year-old was one of ten people charged last year. They faced accusations of leaking memory chip manufacturing technology to ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), a Chinese chipmaker. Authorities have stated that this case helped China advance its development of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a key component needed for artificial intelligence computing. Samsung Electronics chose not to comment on the court’s decision. CXMT also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Yonhap News Agency reported that the defendant leaked Samsung’s DRAM process technology to CXMT. This happened after he moved to the Chinese company along with another former Samsung Electronics official. Citing the prosecution’s office, Yonhap also said the former researcher received approximately 2.9 billion won (about $1.96 million) over six years from CXMT for the leaked information. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office was not available for comment when Reuters contacted them.
Last year, CXMT announced plans to raise 29.5 billion yuan (about $4.33 billion) through a public offering of 10.6 billion shares in Shanghai. The leading Chinese chipmaker stated that it would use the money from this listing to improve its production lines and technologies. This incident highlights the intense competition and security concerns surrounding advanced semiconductor technology globally.
