CXMT Hired 27 Samsung and SK hynix Engineers for DRAM Fabs

Chinese memory maker ChangXin Memory Technologies hired at least 27 veteran engineers from Samsung Electronics and SK hynix to build complete fab operations, South Korea lawmaker Choi Soo-jin said Oct. 6, 2026.

The hired personnel accumulated 415.9 combined years of domestic manufacturing experience, averaging 15.4 years per engineer, legislative audit records showed. Six individuals held senior principal or executive posts with over 20 years of wafer fabrication service.

Samsung Electronics accounted for 23 of the identified personnel, according to the parliamentary committee review. SK hynix accounted for eight workers, with four individuals holding career tenures at both Korean chipmakers.

The recruitment covered the full functional structure needed to establish an operational wafer fab, Choi said. Circuit design and layout drew eight engineers who developed memory cell arrays, peripheral input-output circuits and high-bandwidth memory architectures.

Process integration drew seven specialists who had established baseline flows for 1x-nanometer memory devices, the audit report noted. Four engineers directed unit operations covering etching, chemical vapor deposition, diffusion and metal deposition tooling.

Yield and defect analysis absorbed four engineers specializing in inline metrology, electrical fault isolation and transmission electron microscopy. Two engineers specialized in advanced packaging, including silicon via technology and wafer-level packaging, while one specialist designed cleanroom infrastructure and factory automation.

The Chinese memory maker dismissed almost all of the recruited specialists once production stabilized, the legislative report said. Twenty-six of the 27 identified engineers have already left the company, recording an average tenure of 2.9 years.

Fifteen engineers, representing 56% of the group, used intermediate positions to circumvent non-compete agreements, the committee reported. The workers routed their transitions through equipment vendors, materials suppliers and university research posts before entering the Chinese firm.

Seven former CXMT engineers moved directly to other Chinese semiconductor enterprises, according to career records analyzed in the audit. Those onward employers included Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, fabless designer HiSilicon and Huawei Technologies' research center in Hong Kong.

Six of the departing engineers returned to South Korea after their contracts ended, the report showed. Eleven former employees did not list their subsequent employment on public career platforms, leaving their current postings unrecorded in the audit.

Headhunting agencies offered base salary increases ranging from 60% to 100% to entice Korean memory specialists, recruiter communications showed. The solicitations offered guaranteed employment for three to five years, alongside subsidized housing and overseas education expenses for children.

Recruitment agencies specifically sought senior engineering talent with direct experience in bonding technology for high-bandwidth memory, recruiter messages revealed. Solicitations targeted engineers on public business networks like LinkedIn rather than through formal overseas job postings.

The selective recruitment drive coincided with rapid expansion across ChangXin Memory Technologies' overall technical ranks. The memory producer expanded its research and development staff from 2,606 personnel at year-end 2022 to 7,491 workers by June 2026.

That workforce increase represented a 2.9-fold expansion in engineering headcount over three and a half years, corporate financial records showed. The technical team supported volume manufacturing of DDR4 and low-power DDR4 chips across Chinese production sites.

South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy told the committee that domestic regulators lack legal authority to restrict lawful international headhunting. The ministry confirmed that South Korean statutes provide no enforcement basis against overseas recruitment agencies operating openly.

The ministry allocates hundreds of billions of won annually to train domestic semiconductor talent, legislative records noted. The government assigned zero won in dedicated budgetary spending to monitor or prevent outbound technical brain drain, Choi said.

The technical transfers supported ChangXin Memory Technologies' production ramp across mature memory segments, market trackers reported. Surging output of DDR4 and low-power DDR4 memory from Chinese fabs has applied steady downward pricing pressure on global commodity DRAM contracts.

The engineering hiring continued despite tightening trade and procurement scrutiny from overseas regulators. The United States prohibited direct federal defense procurement contracts with ChangXin Memory Technologies starting June 30, 2026, citing military-industrial integration concerns.

The parliamentary audit does not confirm total unlisted recruitment figures, and ChangXin Memory Technologies has not published formal statements regarding the Korean career findings.

South Korea's National Assembly continues its annual audit hearings through Oct. 24, 2026, where lawmakers will review proposed legislative measures to protect core semiconductor manufacturing talent.