South Korean media pointed out that Chinese semiconductor companies offer high salaries and poach South Korean scientific and technological talents. (Schematic, European News Agency)
2024/12/01
Samsung Electronics, which missed out on the opportunity of AI, decided to make personnel changes, and it was reported that about 100 senior executives in the semiconductor (DS) division were laid off, which is an unprecedented change in senior management personnel. The South Korean industry is worried that this group of executives who are about to leave the company may jump to Chinese semiconductor companies, causing the risk of technology leakage. In addition, Chinese semiconductor companies are offering three to four times their annual salaries to poach employees of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.
According to Korean media reports such as Chosun Ilbo, in order to boost operations, Samsung Electronics will carry out regular personnel adjustments for senior executives in 2025 for vice presidents, managing directors, researchers, and masters, and promote a large number of capable talents in the field of new technology to senior executive positions.
Samsung Electronics has been promoted to 137 employees through a new personnel reorganization, including 35 vice presidents, 92 managing directors, and 10 master's degrees. Compared to the previous year, the scale of promotions decreased slightly. Among them, Ha Ji-hoon, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Samsung's DX Division and Executive Director of SR's Communication Software Research Group, was promoted to vice president at the age of 39.
Samsung Electronics has also replaced the heads of the memory and foundry divisions of the three divisions of the semiconductor (DS) company in an effort to save the competitiveness of the semiconductor business, which has been in crisis. Jun Young-hyun, head of the DS Division and vice chairman, who served as head of the memory division for three years in 2014 when former chairman Kwon Oh-hyun led Samsung Semiconductor, decided to directly lead the memory division.
It is worth mentioning that in this wave of executive personnel adjustments, about 100 executives of Samsung Electronics' semiconductor (DS) division were laid off, and more than 100 executives of this department stepped down within a year, which is unprecedented.
It is reported that many of the executives laid off by Samsung Semiconductor are in their 50s and 60s, which means that they are likely to find new jobs after leaving, especially in recent years, Chinese semiconductor companies have actively recruited engineers and executives from Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, adding to concerns about intellectual property leakage.
An industry insider familiar with Samsung said that in the past, Chinese semiconductor companies only secretly approached South Korean technology talents through intermediaries with a few large companies, but now they are openly offering three to four times the annual salary to attract employees of Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.
Chinese companies are hiring aggressively, often as foreigners, to disguise their affiliations, the sources added.
三星半導體部門上百名高管被裁 傳中企4倍薪搶挖走 - 自由財經
陳麗珠／核稿編輯 〔財經頻道／綜合報導〕錯失AI先機的三星電子（Samsung Electronics），決定進行人事調整，傳出半導體（DS）部門約100名高階主管被裁，這項高管人事異動史無
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