Samsung Electronics stock drops 11%+ at market open

Engineers in Samsung's semiconductor division are applying to rival SK Hynix, with one employee reporting that nearly an entire 30-person team applied to a single SK Hynix job posting. Workers are demoralized by SK Hynix's planned bonus of $476,000 per employee, driven by record profits from high-bandwidth memory chips that power Nvidia's AI accelerators. Samsung struck a deal in May to pay 10.5% of its semiconductor division's operating profits as bonuses annually for 10 years, mostly in company stock that vests over three years. SK Hynix had agreed last year to pay 10% of operating profits to employees, translating to $476,000 per employee this year. Samsung declined to comment.