If HBM Technology Leaks, Competitiveness Severely Damaged...Growing Calls for Stricter Penalties

Shift in Landscape from China to US in Technology Leakage
Fierce Competition Among AI Technology Leading Companies
Attempts of Theft Likely to Increase Continuously
Supreme Court Sentencing Commission to Announce Strengthened Measures This Month

"If information is leaked, Micron (USA) can significantly shorten the time required to achieve business capabilities equivalent to SK Hynix, whereas SK Hynix is expected to suffer considerable damage to its competitiveness."

Recently, the decision by the 50th Civil Division of the Seoul Central District Court, citing a provisional injunction prohibiting a former SK Hynix researcher who moved to a competitor, Micron, in the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) sector, is being praised for accurately pinpointing the crisis our companies may face due to information leakage, the loss of fairness in the competitive landscape, and the resulting market dysfunction. It also implies that competition has become so fierce that covert deals are taking place behind the scenes.

There is also an assessment that the dynamics of technology leakage have changed. An Ki-hyun, Executive Director of the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association, said, "In the past, domestic personnel moved to China, but recently, many have been moving to the U.S., including companies like Micron. Since the skill level of domestic personnel is higher than that in the U.S., if the number of such moves increases, it could weaken our country's competitiveness in various aspects, including technology leakage, which is a cause for concern." Another industry insider said, "Company documents cannot be taken, but ultimately, it is the people who create the technology. If their abilities and know-how are transferred to competitors, it inevitably becomes a problem."

This time, it is also noteworthy that HBM has become the target of technology leakage. As competition among companies to secure faster and more accurate artificial intelligence (AI) technology intensifies, HBM is increasingly likely to be targeted for technology leakage.

HBM is a high-performance, high-capacity DRAM made by vertically stacking multiple DRAM chips with micro-holes drilled through them and connecting the stacked chips with electrodes. Since it is used together with graphics processing units (GPUs), it is called AI memory. It is a high-value-added product with a higher price than general DRAM, and with the recent surge in AI demand, supply has even fallen short. As HBM demand surges, the sales proportion of HBM within total DRAM is also increasing day by day. Although it accounted for a single-digit percentage last year, it is expected to reach double digits above 20% this year. Global investment bank Morgan Stanley predicted that the HBM market, which was worth $4 billion last year, will rapidly grow to $33 billion by 2027.

With HBM dominance directly linked to performance, competition among the DRAM top three?Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and U.S. Micron?is intensifying. According to market research firm TrendForce, last year SK Hynix (53%) and Samsung Electronics (38%) held major shares in the HBM market, with Micron (9%) trailing as a latecomer. This year, SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics are expected to split 47?40% of the market share, with Micron holding 3?5%.

In the legal community, calls for stronger punishment for technology leakage crimes continue. The Supreme Court Sentencing Commission is scheduled to finalize and announce measures to strengthen penalties later this month. Previously, in July last year, an engineer who leaked 33 files related to semiconductor ultra-fine process core technologies from Samsung Electronics to competitor Intel was sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison and fined 10 million won in the second trial. This was a harsher sentence than the first trial, which had a two-year suspended sentence. On the 4th of this month, it was also revealed through the National Intelligence Service that a North Korean hacking group hacked servers of Korean companies in December last year and February this year, stealing semiconductor product design blueprints and on-site equipment photos, causing shock.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.