SK Hynix's $476K bonus pulls 200+ Samsung chip engineers away in four months

Samsung's union counts more than 200 members gone to SK Hynix in four months, and a June survey found 81.5% of its foundry staff want out within two years. The gap is structural pay, not sentiment — SK Hynix is paying roughly $476,000 in bonuses this year against about $135,000 for Samsung's loss-making foundry division. That exodus erodes Samsung's one edge in the HBM4 race, being the only memory maker that owns a foundry, and its July court injunction barring two departing engineers for 18 months on national-core-technology grounds shows the fight has moved into the courts.

Source: technologyreview.com ↗