A former Samsung Electronics Co executive allegedly stole blueprints and designs to try and replicate an entire semiconductor plant in China, Korean prosecutors said in outlining an unusual attempt to establish world-class chipmaking capabilities in the world’s No 2 economy.
Prosecutors said in a statement Monday they arrested a person accused of stealing trade secrets from 2018 to 2019 to reproduce a chip plant in the northern city of Xi’an, backed by capital from a Taiwanese company they didn’t identify. They didn’t name the company the accused stole from, except to call it the world’s biggest memory chipmaker.
The case has the potential to spark tensions between Korea and Taiwan, two of the most important centres for chipmaking and US allies supportive of Washington’s efforts to contain China’s chipmaking ambitions. Taipei and Seoul are very sensitive to attempts by China to poach chip talent and designs from an industry central to both economies’ prosperity.
