[Chip Talk] Sweeter than China... US Micron Targets Talent from Samsung and SK

Micron Tops Engineer Overseas Job Preference
Samsung and SK Hynix Employees Interview in Korea
Up to 20% Salary Increase Based on Withholding Tax
Promises Housing Support and Visa Process
Ambition to Secure HBM4 Technology as Perennial Third
Domestic Firms Counter with Performance Bonuses in Talent Battle

U.S. semiconductor company Micron Technology is reported to have conducted recruitment interviews targeting domestic semiconductor engineers in South Korea. This is the first time Micron has visited the country to carry out hiring. The industry is reacting sensitively to Micron's move, as it is a competitor in the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market. It is being evaluated as a red flag for talent outflow.

According to the industry on the 28th, Micron recently conducted interviews over the past few weeks at hotels around Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, targeting domestic semiconductor engineers including those from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Applicants reportedly had one-on-one face-to-face interviews with a Taiwan-born manager from Micron. The interviews lasted about 30 minutes and included English and presentation (PT) components.

The interviews are understood to have been conducted to recruit personnel to work at a fab (factory) that Micron is building in Taichung, Taiwan. According to developers who participated in the interviews, some were offered positions not only in Taiwan but also in the U.S., where Micron's headquarters is located, and in Singapore, where a fab is situated. Micron's move is drawing attention because it is fiercely competing with Korean companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix for market dominance in the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market. Notably, this time the recruitment manager personally visited South Korea to hire talent, marking a difference from previous occasions.

"Micron Ranks First in Job Change Favorability"

The domestic industry says it is more nervous when Micron tries to recruit our engineers than when Chinese companies do. This is because Micron is known as the semiconductor company most favored among Korean engineers considering job changes.

Micron's headquarters is located in Boise, Idaho, U.S., with many branches across the country. For our engineers, moving to Micron is attractive because it offers the opportunity for their families to experience life in the U.S. Micron is captivating engineers by promising benefits such as significant salary increases and housing support. In recent experienced hires, Micron reportedly offered applicants salary raises of 10-20% before tax withholding, housing expenses, and visa process support as part of the offer conditions.

Micron focuses its production capacity on HBM products familiar to our companies, and most of its process technologies closely resemble ours. Therefore, engineers reportedly do not face significant difficulties adapting.

Historically, the origins of our semiconductor technology are said to have started with Micron. During the 1970s and 1980s, when the late Chairman Lee Byung-chul led Samsung to develop semiconductor technology for the first time, much reference was made to Micron's technology. However, Samsung did not actually adopt Micron's technology. Although Samsung's '64K DRAM development team' paid Micron for semiconductor technology design blueprints and promised training, Micron did not fulfill this promise, leading to a split. Subsequently, Samsung independently developed technology and succeeded in developing the 64K DRAM in 1983. From then on, Korean companies such as Samsung Electronics were considered to have significantly surpassed Micron in DRAM technology.

‘Ambition to Regain Competitiveness with HBM4’

The dominant analysis is that Micron's interest in our engineers stems from its ambition to regain competitiveness in the HBM market. Micron is focusing on the fact that our companies are far ahead in DRAM technology and is actively recruiting our engineers to strengthen its HBM technology, which stacks DRAM higher.

Micron has set a blueprint to mass-produce the 6th generation HBM, HBM4, starting in 2026 and is putting its life on the line. It has remained the perennial third player in the HBM market, and its recently announced Q1 2025 results fell far short of market expectations, adding urgency. In that quarter, Micron reported $8.71 billion (approximately 12.6251 trillion KRW) in revenue and earnings per share of $1.79. This was significantly below Wall Street's forecast of $8.99 billion (approximately 13.031 trillion KRW) in revenue and $1.92 earnings per share. The problem is that the poor performance is not expected to improve significantly in the next quarter either.

Since Micron skipped mass production of the 4th generation product HBM3 and moved directly to HBM3E, the industry generally views that more capabilities are needed to achieve goals such as developing subsequent products and expanding supply volume. The active recruitment of our engineers is interpreted in this context.

Samsung and SK Respond with Performance Bonuses

Micron's move to recruit talent suggests that the competition for talent among companies may heat up for the time being. A semiconductor industry insider emphasized, "Our companies also need to actively seek ways to retain domestic talent and attract good talent from abroad."

Recently, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have been trying to prevent talent outflow through performance bonuses and other measures. Samsung Electronics announced on the 20th via its internal network that it would pay a second-half performance bonus equivalent to 200% of the base salary to the memory division. SK Hynix CEO Kwak No-jung recently said at a communication event with employees held at the Icheon campus in Gyeonggi Province, "We will strive to pay the excess profit performance bonus (PS) by January next year before Lunar New Year." PS is an incentive paid once a year based on annual performance, up to 50% of the annual salary (1000% of base salary). The industry expects that SK Hynix, which is anticipated to have recorded its highest-ever performance this year, will pay the largest PS ever to its employees this time.