Ex-Samsung Employee Receives Record-Breaking Sentence for Disclosing 18nm Chip Secrets to China

The South Korean government is clearly drawing a hard line against the unauthorized transfer of technology to competing nations. A local district courtroom recently dished out a severe punishment to a former Samsung employee who’d been caught leaking crucial chip secrets to China’s CXMT.

China’s CXMT, a major player in the domestic memory manufacturing field, seems to have made a questionable leap forward in their DRAM process development. According to a Sedaily report, South Korea’s Central District Court convicted a former Samsung team manager for sharing Samsung’s proprietary trade secrets with CXMT. This act reportedly spurred the Chinese firm in its DRAM technology advancements. The court had this to say:

"A substantial portion of the indictment is found guilty, noting that Samsung Electronics unlawfully obtained and divulged information about the 18nm DRAM process, a core national technology. The financial toll on Samsung Electronics, considering the investment made to develop and mass-produce 18nm DRAM products, is predictably enormous." – via Sedaily

The ex-Samsung employee allegedly shared essential files related to the company’s 18nm process with CXMT. This breach, driven by individual greed, led to South Korea’s valuable semiconductor process falling into Chinese hands. Samsung has invested heavily—both financially and in terms of time—into developing mature processes like the 18nm. These chips are viewed as industry breakthroughs, so this leak has created national security concerns for South Korea.

We’ve recently discussed how China’s CXMT is gearing up to challenge Samsung in the memory sector. Buzz suggests that they’re advancing in DDR5 technology and have rolled out products locally. Support from motherboard manufacturers like MSI indicates CXMT’s growing dominance. It seems only a matter of time before they vie with the top dogs in the memory manufacturing industry.

Could this breach have given CXMT the leg-up it needed in the memory market? Although it’s not clear-cut yet, this is undoubtedly a major issue for Samsung. The severity of the sentence demonstrates the gravity of this crime, not only in South Korea but worldwide.