The AI chip supercycle is generating such extraordinary profits at South Korea's two largest memory manufacturers that individual employee bonuses at SK hynix could average roughly 700 million won ($477,000) this year, and almost $900,000 next year, according to Korea JoongAng Daily. Samsung Electronics' labor union, meanwhile, has threatened a general strike from May 21st to June 7th after rejecting management's compensation offer.
SK hynix agreed last September to remove its previous bonus cap and allocate 10% of annual operating profit directly to employees as performance-based payouts. With analyst forecasts of some 250 trillion won ($169 billion) in operating profit for 2026, the resulting bonus pool of 25 trillion won would be split among roughly 35,000 workers. It’s understood that the company already paid profit-sharing bonuses averaging about 140 million won (roughly $95,000) per employee in February.
At Samsung, things aren’t looking quite so rosy, as disputes rage on surrounding what percentage of earnings should flow to workers. The company’s union is pushing for 15% of operating profit, which market analysts project will reach roughly 298 trillion won ($202 billion) this year. At that level, the semiconductor division alone would owe approximately 580 million won (~$396,000) per employee across its 77,000-person workforce.
Samsung management countered with a 10% allocation matching SK’s framework, but that proposal was rejected, with the union instead opting to plan a large rally at the company’s Pyeongtaek fab scheduled for April 23rd. Samsung Electronics asked a court last Thursday to block what it called “illegal activities” during a strike. Union chairman Choi Seung-ho says that roughly 200 employees have left for SK hynix over the last four months, according to the Korea Herald.
The scale of these payouts marks a huge reversal of what we’ve seen in recent years. In 2024, Samsung paid no performance bonuses at all after the chip unit posted operating losses throughout 2023’s memory downturn, while SK’s own bonus rate collapsed during the same period. The turnaround has obviously been driven almost entirely by surging demand for HBM and other AI-oriented memory products.
This potential windfall for SK and Samsung employees has sparked unusual public backlash in South Korea, with posts on the anonymous workplace forum Blind arguing that companies benefiting from state infrastructure spending and the K-Chips Act’s 20% tax credits should share their profits more broadly. The combined tax benefits received by both companies over the last two years total an estimated 20 trillion won, which is roughly $13.6 billion.
Looking ahead, the potential bonuses could climb higher still, with investment bank Macquarie having forecasted SK’s operating profit at 447 trillion won ($304.5 billion) for next year, which would push average employee bonuses beyond 1 billion won under the existing 10% profit-sharing agreement.
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