200+ Samsung engineers left for SK Hynix in four months, and 81.5% of the foundry division wants out.

Internal survey data shows 81.5% of foundry staff and nearly 50% of the broader semiconductor division intending to leave within two years. The cause is bonus structure tied to division P&L: SK Hynix paid roughly $476,000 per employee, Samsung's memory division ~$400,000, and Samsung's loss-making foundry division $135,000. This hits AI supply because Samsung is the only memory maker that also owns a foundry, and losing those engineers threatens in-house fabrication of HBM4's logic die. Micron is separately running Seoul job ads at up to 300M won ($214,000) requiring "minimum two years of HBM verification experience," with its entire HBM capacity through end-2026 already allocated. The constraint moved from fab capacity to people. (MIT Technology Review, KED Global)