China’s CXMT Hired 27 Korean Engineers, Then Fired Them

A South Korean political party's investigation has uncovered a coordinated recruitment campaign in which Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT hired 27 experienced engineers away from Samsung and SK Hynix, only to terminate the vast majority shortly after, according to findings released by lawmakers from the People Power Party.

Researchers traced the career movements of the engineers using LinkedIn and other professional databases. The recruited specialists had accumulated substantial experience at their original employers, averaging 15.4 years at Samsung or SK Hynix, with some holding senior roles for more than two decades. The group represented a cross-section of semiconductor expertise: eight focused on chip design, seven on process integration, four on process technology and equipment, four on defect detection and analysis, two on advanced packaging, and one on fab planning and infrastructure.

The recruitment pattern suggests CXMT sought to assemble a complete team capable of establishing an independent semiconductor manufacturing operation. However, the company's retention proved minimal. Of the 27 hired engineers, only one remains employed at CXMT. The average tenure for the rest lasted just 2.9 years before they departed.

Investigators concluded that CXMT's primary objective was extracting technological knowledge that the company could retain and apply long after the engineers left. Several of the departing specialists subsequently joined other Chinese technology firms, including Huawei, SMIC, and HiSilicon, Huawei's processor division, potentially spreading the acquired knowledge across China's semiconductor sector.

CXMT made limited effort to conceal the strategy, publicly acknowledging that three of its five key new hires came from Samsung and Micron Technology. The discovery has intensified South Korean concerns about industrial espionage and talent drain in its critical technology sector. Lawmakers recently passed legislation imposing prison sentences up to 30 years for citizens engaged in such activity. In a previous case, ten former Samsung engineers faced charges for transferring technology secrets to CXMT, with Samsung claiming damages of $3.7 billion.

Meanwhile, CXMT continues aggressive expansion across its facilities in Hefei, Beijing, and Shanghai. The company aims to reach approximately 350,000 wafer starts per month in the near term, with ambitions to scale toward 500,000 to 600,000 wafer starts monthly by 2028–2030. This capacity growth directly supports CXMT's strategy to challenge Samsung and SK Hynix for global DRAM market share and achieve self-sufficiency in LPDDR production.