A giant company is experiencing internal strife: The AI team gets a bonus of one million, while other employees only get 30,000, a difference of 100 times.

On May 25th, according to the Seoul Economic Daily, Samsung recently reached a preliminary profit - sharing agreement with its labor union. Although this agreement successfully averted a planned 18 - day large - scale strike, the skewed bonus distribution plan in the agreement quickly intensified the conflict between the chip department and the consumer electronics department.

In the agreement, the AI chip department enjoys most of the profit dividends, and the bonus gap between different business departments of Samsung has widened to nearly 100 times.

The huge income gap quickly triggered a strong internal backlash. It not only led to the cancellation of multiple department meetings and the stagnation of major project decisions but also affected the key production link responsible for the back - end packaging and testing of HBM (High - Bandwidth Memory).

01.

A 100 - fold Bonus Difference Ignites Internal Discontent

The core of this conflict is the vastly different bonus schemes between Samsung's semiconductor department and non - semiconductor departments.

According to the preliminary agreement reached on May 20th, Samsung will distribute 10.5% of the semiconductor department's operating profit in the form of stocks and another 1.5% in cash. Among them, the average bonus per employee in the storage department is about 600 million won (equivalent to about 2.69 million yuan). In contrast, employees in the DX (Device Experience) department, which is responsible for businesses such as smartphones and TVs, only receive a bonus of about 6 million won (equivalent to about 30,000 yuan), a gap of up to 100 times.

This plan quickly sparked strong opposition from employees in non - storage departments. A small - scale labor union representing DX employees has applied to the court for an injunction this week to prevent the chip department's labor union, which led the negotiations, from advancing the agreement. The number of members of this union has soared from 3,000 before the agreement was announced to nearly 13,000, and the protest wave continues to expand.

In addition, the Korean Shareholder Action Headquarters has also threatened to take legal action, arguing that according to Korean law, this profit - linked bonus structure requires shareholder approval.

02.

Amid Internal Strife

The Delivery Capacity of HBM4 Faces Instability

Sources revealed that some meetings between Samsung's non - memory business departments and shared business departments have been cancelled, and the phenomenon of "go - slow" is spreading in the wafer foundry and test and packaging (TSP) departments. The latter undertakes the important task of back - end packaging and testing of HBM chips and is an indispensable part of the AI memory mass - production process.

This time point is particularly critical for Samsung.

Currently, the global demand for AI computing power continues to explode. Cloud computing companies and hyperscale data centers are frantically purchasing HBM products to support the new - generation AI training and inference systems. Samsung is trying to expand the production capacity of HBM4, hoping to enter the supply chain of NVIDIA's next - generation Rubin AI accelerator.

Different from traditional memory chips, HBM highly depends on advanced packaging technology, and the entire process from wafer manufacturing to packaging and testing is completed internally. This means that once the TSP link slows down, the overall shipping capacity of HBM will be directly restricted.

Industry insiders pointed out that currently, the world's three major memory manufacturers are competing for the window period of AI memory orders. Any delay in the production rhythm may cause customers to turn to competitors.

More seriously, insiders warned that if the production line and verification process continue to be in a loose state, it will not only affect the delivery schedule but also damage Samsung's long - term trust relationship with large customers.

03.

Electronic Voting is in Progress

43,000 Non - Storage Department Union Members Have a Great Impact

Currently, Samsung's labor union members are conducting an electronic vote on the agreement. The voting period is from May 23rd to 27th, and the agreement can only take effect if "the voting rate exceeds 50% and the majority approves".

This vote involves 57,290 eligible members. Among them, the attitudes of about 43,000 non - storage department union members in the DS (Device Solutions) department will affect the final result.

The Samsung Electronics Labor Union (SELU) said on Friday that among the 57,290 eligible SELU members, 32,882 have voted. However, their voting situation has not been made public. The internal forum shows that employees' opposition is high, and they generally believe that the agreement seriously favors the storage department and damages the interests of non - storage departments.

Although Samsung Semiconductor CEO Kwon Oh - hyun issued an internal memo on Thursday, calling on employees to put aside their differences and tide over the difficulties together, this dispute is now posing real risks to Samsung.

04.

Conclusion: Strikes and Internal Strife, Samsung's Internal Turmoil Continues

Samsung originally tried to stabilize its most crucial AI chip team with high - value bonuses, but it exposed the long - standing differences in interest distribution within the enterprise.

After the AI industry has entered the stage of "competing in production capacity, delivery, and supply - chain stability", the competition among technology giants is not only a technological race but also a contest of organizational management and interest - distribution capabilities.

For Samsung, the real challenge may not just be whether it can mass - produce HBM4, but how to avoid a new upheaval for a global technology giant due to internal imbalance when the AI dividend is booming.

Source: Reuters, tomshardware

This article is from the WeChat official account "Zhidongxi". Author: Xu Jiayang, Editor: Yun Peng. Republished by 36Kr with permission.