A South Korean court barred two former Samsung chip employees from joining SK Hynix for 18 months, siding with Samsung’s argument that semiconductor know-how is a protected national core technology.
The injunction lands as SK Hynix’s roughly $476,000 per-employee bonus—driven by record HBM profits—far outstrips payouts for many Samsung staff, especially foundry workers receiving about $135,000.
That pay gap is accelerating defections: Samsung’s union said in April that more than 200 members had left for SK Hynix in four months, and a June survey found 81.5% of foundry employees wanted to move within two years.
The talent fight matters because SK Hynix leads HBM after betting early on the technology, while Samsung is trying to catch up and still holds an edge through its in-house foundry capability for next-generation HBM4.
Both companies are expanding aggressively—part of more than $2 trillion in planned investment by 2040—even as South Korea’s chip industry faces a projected 54,000-worker shortfall by 2031.