Samsung's Foundry Business: Why Employees Are Moving On

Have you ever wondered why some companies seem to lose their best people? Samsung's foundry business is facing a crisis right now. Many employees are leaving, hoping for better opportunities elsewhere. Recently, about 200 engineers from Samsung applied for just three jobs at SK hynix. That's a lot of competition for a few spots! Samsung's semiconductor division has been trying to cut costs by reducing the number of executives. But that doesn't seem to be helping much. The mood at the company is pretty low, and it's not just because of Samsung's recent poor performance. SK hynix, one of Samsung's competitors, has been doing well. They even got NVIDIA as a customer for their HBM memory, which is important for making AI GPUs. It's not just experienced engineers leaving Samsung. Even those with less experience are trying to transfer to SK hynix, which has a program for younger engineers. Last month, there was a town hall meeting at Samsung. An employee asked about keeping talented people. The memory division head, Lee Jung-bae, didn't have great news. He basically said everyone should work hard and try to convince others to stay. But Samsung's pay isn't that great compared to other companies, even with bonuses. So, there's not much motivation for people to stick around.