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The semiconductor chip manufacturing industry is highly competitive, with countries such as Taiwan and Korea ensuring that company secrets are considered national property, and other regions such as America and Europe are now trying to develop their own supply so as not to be too dependent on one or two source only.
Recently, it has been reported that two former Samsung executives have been detained by South Korean police on suspicion of selling the company's secret memory chip manufacturing technology and have opened a factory in Chengdu, China.
According to a Bloomberg report, it is suspected that one of those individuals, the 66-year-old Mr. Choi, leaked $3.2 billion worth of 20nm memory manufacturing technology to China, and opened the said factory earlier.
The secret of this technology is very important for Samsung because it makes them among the manufacturers of high-quality memory chips that are used to power not only consumer devices, but also powerful computers used for the purpose of machine learning, artificial intelligence and so on. Apart from that, Mr. Choi is also reported to have tried to persuade engineers to join his factory in China.
Meanwhile, another accomplice in this crime is Mr. Oh, who is a factory architect who is also reported to have helped in the opening of the factory in China.
Semiconductor chip manufacturing technology such as processing and memory chips is something that is very tightly controlled by governments such as South Korea, Taiwan and Japan because it is seen as a "currency" that helps ensure their countries remain relevant in this modern economy.