Samsung heads to US amid intensifying chip talent war

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest memory chipmaker, is heading to the US next month to scout semiconductor research and development talent amid intensifying recruitment war.

That is part of the South Korean company’s Tech and Career (T&C) Forum, its annual global recruitment event that has been held at major overseas universities since 2016. This year, the size has been reduced but the focus is on talented people in the company’s target businesses, according to Samsung.

Samsung will be holding recruitment explanation sessions in three regions – Austin, Texas, where its foundry plant is located; Silicon Valley, California; and Boston, Massachusetts.

“This time, we’re having a sort of private explanation session to raise the chance of hiring good people,” said a Samsung official.

Samsung has been aggressively recruiting semiconductor talent in recent years. In the first half of this year alone, it hired more than 4,200 people.

The workforce in Samsung’s Device Solution (DS) division increased from 63,902 last year to 68,121 in the first half of this year. Samsung hopes to raise DS employees to 70,000 by year-end.

"Seoul National University's engineering college quota has shrunk by more than half over the past 10 years,” said a Samsung executive. “We must go abroad to hire good talent.”

LACK OF SKILLED MANPOWER

Korea’s chip industry has been reeling from a lack of skilled workforce amid criticism that the government has been slow to provide infrastructure and build a professional workforce for the backbone of the Korean economy – Asia’s fourth-largest.

The government estimates that Korea should have at least 304,000 chip experts over the next 10 years if it wants to compete on an equal footing with its archrival Taiwan, home to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s top foundry chipmaker, and other countries such as China and the US.

Korea’s government officials said in July Korea will cut administrative red tape and ease the restrictive student quota system at colleges to nurture talent as the country scrambles for semiconductor supremacy.

Samsung Electronics is not alone in the battle to secure talent.

TSMC will hold a recruitment fair for master's and doctoral level talent at 16 major Taiwan universities starting this month. The Taiwanese company plans to hire as many as 1,500 new R&D employees.

According to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report, the semiconductor industry is emerging as a black hole for talent and up to 500,000 new chip workers will be needed worldwide by 2025.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.