A South Korean court sentenced a former Samsung Electronics researcher to seven years in prison for divulging semiconductor technology to a Chinese company. The Seoul Central District Court convicted the defendant, identified by his surname, of violating the Industrial Technology Protection Act. The leaked data was deemed a critical national technology, and he was found to have played a role in the breach.
The 56-year-old individual was one of ten people accused last year of leaking memory chip manufacturing technology to Chinese chipmaker ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT). This incident was said to have facilitated China’s advancement in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), crucial for artificial intelligence computing.
Samsung Electronics and CXMT did not comment on the matter when approached by Reuters. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office was also unavailable for immediate comment.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the defendant shared Samsung’s DRAM process technology with CXMT after joining the Chinese company with a former Samsung Electronics official. Reports indicated that he received approximately 2.9 billion won ($1.96 million) from CXMT over six years.
In the previous year, CXMT announced plans to generate 29.5 billion yuan ($4.33 billion) through an initial public offering in Shanghai. The funds were intended for enhancing production lines and technologies.
