The Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday announced that a former researcher for South Korean electronics giant Samsung has been sentenced to seven years in prison for leaking chip technology to China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT).
The court found that the leak violated South Korea’s Industrial Technology Protection Act, which sets harsh penalties for offenses that compromise “national core technologies.” The data leaked by the defendant allegedly helped China to develop high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a key technology for artificial intelligence that was created with support from the South Korean state.
HBM is a cutting-edge technology that allows computer memory chips to be stacked in three dimensions, creating memory arrays with enormous storage capacity and access speeds far beyond previous memory technology.
HBM also consumes less energy than earlier designs, which is vital because artificial intelligence (AI) systems are notoriously power-hungry, and it generates less heat, allowing HBM systems to handle heavy computer activity without melting down.
Prosecutors said the defendant, identified only by his surname “Kim,” provided data on seven key technologies to CXMT after he left Samsung and took a position with the Chinese firm in 2016. He also poached about 20 other technicians from Samsung and persuaded them to work for CXMT. His Chinese employers paid him “tens of millions of dollars” for his services.
CXMT was a virtually unknown firm in 2016, but it grew with suspicious speed into a major player in computer memory technology.
On Wednesday, leading American chipmaker Micron urged a U.S. House panel to impose tighter export restrictions on the equipment Chinese firms are using to manufacture chips. CXMT is one of the Chinese companies targeted by the proposed legislation.
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