Ex-Samsung Researcher: CXMT Was Built to Steal Tech

Startling testimony has emerged in the criminal trial over technology leaks from Samsung Electronics to Chinese chipmaker CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies). Jeon, 56, a former Samsung Electronics researcher who was among the company's founding members, took the stand on August 11 before the Seoul Central District Court's 32nd Criminal Division (Presiding Judge Ryu Kyung-jin) and testified that CXMT's leadership had planned from the very beginning to build its products by absorbing Samsung's technology. According to his account, the company had no independent research division or production facilities when it was founded, and showed no real intent to develop its own technology.

Jeon also testified that the company's internal reporting structure differed depending on employees' country of origin. He said staff complained internally that reports written by Taiwanese employees were accepted at face value, while material from Korean employees was routinely dismissed. The information at issue in this case reportedly contains core details on 618 individual steps involved in DRAM manufacturing.

Jeon himself is one of the defendants in the case. After 28 years at Samsung Electronics, he moved to CXMT in 2016 and was accused of illegally passing along information related to Samsung's 18-nanometer DRAM process — technology the company spent 1.6 trillion won (about $1.2 billion) to develop. He received a heavy seven-year prison sentence in his own first-trial ruling this past April. Notably, he did not disclose evidence of organized corporate involvement during his own trial but changed his account when testifying in a co-defendant's case, raising questions about whether he'll offer further testimony once his appeal begins.

Prosecutors, who have been investigating since 2024, have indicted roughly a dozen development staff, including Jeon, on charges including leaking core national technology overseas. They believe CXMT grew rapidly by recruiting former Samsung employees and absorbing core technology, and that this pipeline of expertise helped the company become the first Chinese firm to mass-produce 10-nanometer-class DRAM in 2023. As a result, within roughly a decade of its founding, the company climbed to fourth place worldwide in DRAM market share, behind Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.

Legal experts say that if this testimony is accepted as fact, it could serve as evidence for Samsung to pursue trade-secret claims. That's fueling talk of filing a complaint against CXMT with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), built on the record from Korea's domestic investigation and trial.