It's just too late.
Last month, Business Korea reported, the Seoul Central District Court issued an injunction blocking the move of one of HBM's veteran developers from SK hynix to rival Micron Technology. The problem is that the accused moved to Micron back in 2022, although shortly before that he signed an agreement with SK hynix not only to protect the commercial interests of the South Korean memory manufacturer, but also to prohibit him from moving to competitors for two years from the date of dismissal. In practice, the engineer moved from SK hynix to Micron already in 2022, failing to meet the deadline until July 26 of this year.
Image Source: Business Korea
After moving to the United States in July 2022, the accused South Korean specialist led the SK hynix team in developing new types of memory, including HBM. Since SK hynix controls more than half of the global HBM market, and Micron's share is measured at several percent, the latter's interest in obtaining a valuable specialist is difficult to deny. A South Korean court not only banned the defendant from working for a competing company, but also sentenced him to pay a fine of $7,580 for each day of early return to work at a competing company. In a couple of years, one must assume, a decent amount will accrue – more than $5.5 million, if you count weekends.