As competition for leadership in artificial intelligence (AI) chips intensifies, the global semiconductor industry is throwing itself into a battle to secure Korean engineers. With a prolonged shortage of high bandwidth memory (HBM) supply, the market value of Korean talent with mass-production and Production yield stabilization experience is soaring. Not only Samsung Electronics and SK hynix but also overseas corporations such as Nvidia, TSMC, and China's Changxin Memory (CXMT) are jumping into the race to secure talent.
The reason Korean engineers are drawing attention is not just their design capabilities. As investments in AI data centers surge and demand for HBM skyrockets, on-the-ground experience in actually mass-producing advanced chips and stabilizing the Production yield has become more important than anything else. The industry says advanced memory mass-production experience accumulated at Samsung Electronics and SK hynix is receiving high marks in the global market.
Amid this trend, the competition among domestic corporations to secure talent is also intensifying. SK hynix on the 24th began hiring experienced workers for core system semiconductor roles, including HBM circuit design and digital design, SoC (system on a chip) design and verification, digital and analog IP design, and foundry PI. In the earlier rolling recruitment for new hires, it fully abolished existing academic background restrictions. The aim is to select talent based on actual job capabilities and growth potential rather than degrees or credentials.
In the industry, SK hynix's recent hiring expansion is seen as a strategy to secure design talent for the HBM4 era. As HBM evolves into its sixth-generation product, HBM4, the importance of the base die (logic die), which controls the chip from the bottom, has increased. From the generation after HBM4, customer-specific features and the difficulty of logic design are expected to rise. Accordingly, securing engineers with system semiconductor architecture and logic design capabilities, beyond traditional memory process experience, is emerging as a core task.
The industry expects the talent war between Samsung Electronics and SK hynix to become even fiercer than the competition among global corporations. The global HBM market is effectively led by Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, and personnel with next-generation HBM development experience and mass-production know-how are also concentrated at the two companies. In fact, many of the newly posted roles for new and experienced hires focus on system semiconductor fields necessary for HBM logic die development, such as SoC design, IP development, and verification. As a result, the industry expects an even fiercer battle to secure nonmemory design talent centered on Samsung Electronics' System LSI Business and Foundry Business.
Recently, Samsung Electronics' nonmemory business has relatively underperformed, leading to internal complaints over performance bonus gaps among divisions. With global corporations' scouting offensives coinciding with expanded hiring by domestic competitors, attention is turning to the possibility of movement among key personnel. An industry official said, "Even if overseas corporations want Korean talent, the first targets they will try to secure are engineers from Samsung Electronics and SK hynix," adding, "Because much of HBM competitiveness depends on people, the competition between the two companies to secure talent will intensify further."
Overseas corporations are also accelerating their efforts to secure talent. Nvidia, Broadcom, and Micron are offering compensation packages worth hundreds of millions of won and restricted stock units (RSUs) to recruit Korean talent. Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk is also said to have personally encouraged the hiring of advanced packaging and process engineers in Korea. TSMC and Japan's JASM are strengthening recruitment activities focused on Korean universities and graduate schools, and China's Changxin Memory (CXMT) is also reportedly actively seeking to secure Korean semiconductor personnel.
Behind global corporations' efforts to secure Korean engineers is world-class experience in mass production and Production yield stabilization. Design capabilities alone are not enough to stably produce advanced chips. Korean engineers who have experienced mass production of not only DRAM and NAND flash but also HBM at Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are regarded as the most competitive talent pool in the global supply chain.
The workforce shortage in the semiconductor industry is expected to become a long-term national task. The Korea Semiconductor Industry Association forecasts that domestic demand for semiconductor industry workers will exceed 300,000 by 2031, but new supply is expected to fall far short of that.
An industry official said, "It has become an era in which it is difficult to retain top talent through compensation competition alone," adding, "If corporations fail to present a research and development environment and growth vision where excellent engineers can stay engaged over the long term, the outflow of core talent—our national strategic asset—could accelerate."