(Bloomberg) -- South Korean police have arrested two former Samsung Electronics Co. officials on suspicion of stealing technologies worth more than 4.3 trillion won ($3.2 billion) to build a copycat chipmaking plant in China.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on Tuesday described how the pair had collaborated with local Chinese officials to build a semiconductor facility. One of the two, identified as a 66-year-old surnamed Choi, recruited South Korean chip experts and leaked Samsung memory technologies via a joint venture, the police said in a statement.
They didn’t offer timeframes, or identify the Chinese location. But some of the details mirrored those from a case that first came to light in 2023, as tensions escalated between Beijing and Washington over sanctions aimed at China’s chip sector. In that instance, a former Samsung executive was arrested for allegedly stealing blueprints to try and replicate an entire fabrication plant in China.
Korea, as the world’s foremost producer of memory chips, is a key ally of Washington in efforts to contain Beijing’s technological ambitions. On Tuesday, Seoul police described what it called a serious security violation perpetrated through a Chinese JV, Chengdu Gaozhen. Choi served as the venture’s chief and was aided by a plant designer surnamed Oh, police said in their statement.
The pair collaborated with officials to produce 20-nanometer DRAM chips last year, the police said. That not only damaged Samsung but “weakened the nation’s competitiveness when the countries are in a global chip war,” the agency said in its statement.
Police said their probe had successfully halted the Chinese venture’s operation, but they were still investigating further technology leaks. Representatives for Samsung declined to comment.
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