The competition for talent in the semiconductor industry, especially within the AI semiconductor sector, is becoming increasingly fierce, with Nvidia leading the charge. Nvidia is aggressively recruiting top semiconductor talent worldwide, including from South Korea. According to LinkedIn data as of June. 18., 515 Nvidia employees previously worked at Samsung Electronics, which is nearly double the number of former Nvidia employees now at Samsung (278). This suggests a significant brain drain from Samsung to Nvidia. Considering Samsung’s semiconductor division (DS) employs approximately 74,000 people—2.5 times Nvidia’s 30,000—the talent outflow is even more noticeable. Only 0.4% of Samsung’s DS workforce comprises former Nvidia employees, while 1.7% of Samsung’s semiconductor employees have transitioned to Nvidia.
Samsung, however, is better than Nvidia in attracting talent from other major players. Intel, for instance, has 848 employees from Samsung, whereas 1,138 Intel employees have moved to Samsung. Similarly, Micron employs 205 former Samsung workers, while 307 Micron employees have joined Samsung. The trend continues with Taiwan’s TSMC, which has 24 former Samsung employees, whereas 195 TSMC employees have moved to Samsung.
SK Hynix faces a significant talent drain. LinkedIn data shows 38 Nvidia employees were previously with SK Hynix, with none moving in the opposite direction.
Despite supplying high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to Nvidia, SK Hynix needs more engineers with AI semiconductor expertise. The outflow extends to other companies too, with 111 SK Hynix employees moving to Micron, compared to just eight moving from Micron to SK Hynix. Additionally, 11 TSMC employees were formerly with SK Hynix, while only three TSMC employees have joined SK Hynix.
An industry insider noted that domestic semiconductor companies are actively recruiting for high-performance memory roles such as HBM. Additionally, more master’s and doctoral-level semiconductor professionals in South Korea are entering the industry, indicating a trend where talent flows from academia to domestic companies and then to international firms.
