Samsung’s chip workers are jumping ship to rival SK Hynix

Lee, an engineer at Samsung’s semiconductor division, clocks out when his shift ends. He used to work longer hours, going the extra mile to excel at his projects.

But lately, he’s been coming straight home to work on his job application for the chipmaker’s South Korean rival SK Hynix, sharing tips with his coworkers on how to draft a stellar personal statement.

Even his boss encourages him to make the move. “My team lead tells us all to jump ship to SK Hynix,” says Lee.

He and his coworkers are feeling demoralized by the $476,000 bonus that SK Hynix is set to pay its employees, flush with record profits from making the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips that power Nvidia’s AI accelerators.

The figure dwarfs what chip workers at Samsung are set to receive and is sparking an exodus. As the AI boom heats up, the semiconductor titans are waging a fierce talent war with flashy bonuses, aggressive recruiting, and even a courtroom injunction.

Who wins could tilt the race to dominate the next generation of the HBM chips at the heart of the AI boom. “Except for our two team leads, my entire team [of 30 people] just applied to SK Hynix,” Lee says, referring to a job posting the company publis

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  Samsung’s chip workers are jumping ship to rival SK Hynix