Samsung Raises Pay, Expands Stock Awards to Retain Memory Chip Talent

Samsung Electronics is raising salaries and expanding stock rewards to retain key semiconductor talent, as U.S. chipmakers Micron and SanDisk intensify recruitment of HBM and NAND flash engineers in South Korea.

In the first half of 2026, Samsung's workforce at its South Korean headquarters fell by about 300 people year-on-year to 129,200, while employee compensation expenses rose 6.8% to 8.01 trillion won. The company promised to grant 1.777 million common shares to employees for "retention and motivation of key talent," with a fair value of about 370.6 billion won at the time, with some shares to be distributed through 2028.

Micron has recently been hiring HBM design engineers in South Korea, while SanDisk is recruiting for NAND system architecture, core design, and SSD firmware development roles in Seoul. Competition for semiconductor engineers in the country is intensifying as AI data centers drive demand for HBM, high-performance NAND, and enterprise SSDs.