Samsung’s memory chip division staff are in line for bonuses averaging roughly £310,000 each, mostly paid in stock, following a landmark profit-sharing agreement.
The deal was backed by 74 per cent of workers in a union ballot and ends a bitter five-month dispute that had threatened an 18-day strike at the world’s largest memory chipmaker.
Under the agreement, Samsung will hand 10.5 per cent of semiconductor operating profits directly to chip staff, an unusually generous arrangement within South Korea’s corporate landscape.
The settlement has already triggered concern among investors, academics and rival unions who question the long-term implications of such a generous profit-sharing structure.
The payouts reflect how dramatically the AI boom is reshaping the global technology labour market, with firms competing aggressively for highly specialised AI and semiconductor talent.
Anthropic this week advertised London engineering roles paying as much as £630,000 a year, while JPMorgan restarted hiring for quantum computing researchers amid growing competition for frontier Tech expertise.
Samsung’s memory chip Business has emerged as one of the biggest winners from the AI infrastructure race, as companies building data centres scramble for high-bandwidth chips needed to train large language models.
The frenzy has pushed semiconductor valuations sharply higher, with rival SK Hynix surging more than nine per cent on Wednesday and Micron jumping 19 per cent this week after analysts sharply upgraded forecasts.
Samsung shares rose three per cent following confirmation of the labour agreement, though the stock still trails some rivals after concerns earlier this year over its position in the AI supply chain.
The scale of the bonuses has exposed growing divisions inside Samsung itself, with workers in consumer electronics and other divisions expected to receive far smaller payouts.
Those internal tensions have prompted fresh friction across the broader conglomerate, with one Samsung foundry employee telling Reuters the atmosphere inside parts of the business had become “gloomy”, despite the windfall.
The deal is also likely to intensify pressure across the wider tech sector as unions elsewhere push for a greater share of profits generated by the AI boom.