The ruling, delivered by the Seoul Central District Court in South Korea, adds to a series of cases involving the transfer of advanced chip know-how abroad.

The court found the 56-year-old man, identified by his surname Jeon, guilty of violating the Industrial Technology Protection Act.

Judges said he unlawfully obtained and used Samsung’s DRAM process technology after leaving the company and joining China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT).

Jeon’s case centres on what authorities describe as national core technology. This includes Samsung’s DRAM production process and detailed manufacturing methods known in the industry as process recipes.

The development of the technology reportedly cost around 1.6 trillion won, or about $1.2 billion.

Prosecutors said the former Samsung Researcher worked with others after moving to CXMT and helped draw up a DRAM development plan for the Chinese firm. They also said he was involved in recruiting key personnel during the transition.

Over a period of about six years, he received around 2.9 billion won, or roughly $2.1 million, from CXMT. This included a sign-on payment and stock options.

CXMT is China’s first DRAM-focused semiconductor company. It was set up with large-scale support from local government funding, estimated at about 2.6 trillion won.

The firm has been expanding quickly as China pushes to reduce reliance on foreign chip suppliers.

Authorities in South Korea argued that the leaked information could have helped CXMT speed up development in high-bandwidth memory technology.

That type of memory is now widely used in artificial intelligence systems and high-performance computing.

Samsung Electronics did not comment on the ruling. CXMT also did not respond to requests for comment.

In its judgment, the court stressed the scale of the breach and its wider impact. The judges said, “He acquired core information developed by a major Korean company at enormous cost and had it used by a foreign entity. Because this inflicted losses not only on the company but also on the Republic of Korea, severe punishment is unavoidable.”

This case is not isolated as South Korea has dealt with several similar incidents in recent years involving advanced display and semiconductor technologies. In earlier cases, employees were found guilty of leaking OLED and chip-related data to overseas firms.

Another related case involving a former Samsung employee surnamed Kim is still under review after reaching South Korea’s Supreme Court. He was previously sentenced to six years in prison and fined for similar offences linked to CXMT.

Court records show that Kim’s case was sent back for retrial after the Supreme Court ruled that earlier proceedings did not properly separate key legal elements, including acquisition and disclosure of trade secrets.

South Korean authorities treat semiconductor process technology as national core technology. Officials say this reveals its importance to both industry and national security.

CXMT has expanded despite the legal challenge surrounding its early development. In 2025, the company announced plans to raise about 29.5 billion yuan through an initial public offering in Shanghai.

The funds are expected to support upgrades to production lines and technology development.

This case also adds to a pattern of industrial espionage disputes involving South Korea’s chip sector. In 2012, several individuals were arrested over alleged leaks of display technology. More cases followed in 2020 and 2023, involving both semiconductor and OLED information.

Samsung said the share buyback will occur on the stock market between January 8 and April 7, 2026, with the repurchased shares to be held as treasury stock and allocated to performance-linked incentive programmes.

The scheme, first introduced in October 2025, is designed to tie compensation directly to company performance. In offering stock-based rewards, Samsung hopes to retain top engineers and executives as competition for advanced AI memory chips increases.

The company is preparing production of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and DRAM, both essential for next-generation AI applications.

Memory chip prices are currently surging. DDR5 DRAM costs jumped 314% year-on-year in Q4 2025, and analysts expect another 55–60% rise in DRAM contract prices during the first quarter of 2026. 

Competitors, including SK Hynix and Micron, have already secured substantial supply deals with Nvidia, strengthening the stakes in the global AI chip race.

Analysts in the industry interpret the Samsung share buyback as a sign of confidence in the company’s profit outlook. Projections show the company could exceed 100 trillion won in operating profit for 2026, more than double its 2025 figures. 

The programme is also likely to bolster Samsung’s share price, which surged 125% in 2025, its largest annual profit in 26 years.

The company is expected to report a fourth-quarter operating profit of about 16.9 trillion won for the October–December period, according to analyst estimates compiled by LSEG. 

That figure would represent a jump of roughly 160% from a year earlier and place Samsung within touching distance of its 2018 peak, when the memory market last experienced a major price cycle.

What has changed is not just demand, but the structure of it. With manufacturers focusing capacity towards advanced chips for data centres, output of conventional memory has tightened. Prices have responded with unusual force. 

TrendForce data shows DDR5 DRAM prices climbed 314% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, while contract prices for standard DRAM are forecast to rise another 55% to 60% in the first quarter of this year.

That dynamic plays directly into Samsung’s hands. The company is heavily exposed to conventional DRAM, a segment that many rivals had begun to treat as mature. 

“As conventional DRAM prices continue to surge, Samsung – whose production capacity is largely concentrated in this segment – stands to gain relatively more from the current price upcycle,” TrendForce analyst Avril Wu said.

This quarter goes beyond a one-off rebound. Just over a year ago, Samsung’s leadership was apologising publicly for weak performance as it fell behind SK Hynix in supplying high-bandwidth memory to Nvidia. 

Today, the tone is different. On Friday, executive chairman Jun Young-hyun told investors that customers had described Samsung’s next-generation HBM4 chips by saying, “Samsung is back.”

The competitive backdrop explains why that is important. SK Hynix completed what it described as world-first HBM4 development in September 2025, doubling bandwidth and cutting power use by 40%. 

By the end of last year, it had already sold out its entire 2026 supply to Nvidia. Micron, meanwhile, has told investors that tight memory conditions could last beyond 2026, with chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra warning that the company expects to meet only half to two-thirds of demand from several major customers.

At CES 2026, chipmaker Nvidia unveiled its Vera Rubin platform, confirming that the next generation of its systems will rely on HBM4 memory. Nvidia said the Vera Rubin architecture is in full production and on track for launch later this year, underlining how critical reliable HBM supply has become.

Samsung’s expected profit surge shows this bigger change. Some analysts have already lifted their fourth-quarter forecasts above 20 trillion won, betting that price momentum in traditional memory has been underestimated. 

Looking further ahead, market forecasts reveal Samsung’s operating profit could exceed 100 trillion won this year, more than double last year’s level, if pricing remains firm.

Investors have largely embraced the turnaround. Samsung shares rose 125% last year, their strongest annual gain in 26 years, although they dipped 2.1% in early Tuesday trading as the wider market paused after a rally.

Risks have not disappeared. Lee Min-hee of BNK Investment & Securities cautioned that higher chip prices could cool demand for consumer devices and flagged “risks of a demand slowdown” as data centres rely more on debt to fund expansion. 

Samsung itself has acknowledged the limitations on its mobile business, where rising component costs are squeezing margins. “As this situation is unprecedented, no company is immune to its impact,” co-chief executive TM Roh said, adding that the fallout looks “inevitable”.

Even so, a memory market once dismissed as cyclical has become essential to the next phase of global computing.