SK Hynix's HBM windfall triggers Samsung chip division brain drain

HBM profits widen the bonus gap

SK Hynix employees are receiving $476,000 annual bonuses this year, mostly in cash, after the company committed last year to distributing 10% of operating profits to workers. According to MIT Technology Review, the windfall stems from record demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips powering Nvidia’s AI accelerators. Samsung’s memory division is reaping similar HBM profits and offering roughly $400,000 in annual bonuses, but the semiconductor giant’s foundry division—which manufactures logic chips for companies including Tesla and Google and is currently operating at a loss—is distributing only $135,000 per employee this year.

According to MIT Technology Review, Samsung struck a deal in May with its labor union to pay out 10.5% of the semiconductor division’s operating profits to employees annually for a decade, distributed mostly as company stock vesting over three years. The structure ties bonuses to individual division performance, disadvantaging workers in unprofitable units.

Mass defections from Samsung’s logic-chip division

The bonus disparity is accelerating departures. According to MIT Technology Review, one Samsung engineer reported that 28 of his 30-person foundry team applied to SK Hynix positions published in July. The engineer, who had worked at Samsung for three years, applied for an entry-level role at SK Hynix and was rejected, but remains hopeful about applying for more senior positions. A coworker with eight years at Samsung applied for the same entry-level posting and also received a rejection.

Even Samsung’s internal management is tacitly endorsing exits. The engineer told MIT Technology Review that his team lead encouraged workers to apply to SK Hynix, saying: “My team lead tells us all to jump ship to SK Hynix.” According to the publication, all employees interviewed requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation from their employer. Samsung declined to comment, and SK Hynix did not respond to requests for comment.

Why This Matters

Samsung’s foundry division faces a critical retention crisis. If attrition accelerates beyond current levels, the division risks losing institutional knowledge required to ramp production for existing Intel and Qualcomm logic-chip contracts scheduled for Q4 2026 and beyond. The talent exodus also undercuts Samsung’s ability to compete for new foundry customers during a period when logic-chip manufacturing capacity is in relative short supply. SK Hynix, meanwhile, is consolidating a recruitment advantage that compounds as departing Samsung engineers bring process expertise and customer relationships. For Samsung’s leadership, the choice is binary: either harmonize bonus structures across divisions—absorbing losses in the foundry unit—or accept continued brain drain and cede market share in advanced logic manufacturing to competitors including Intel’s nascent foundry services and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.