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3 ex-Sapeon employees charged over leaked 'key' AI technology

Published: 06 Aug. 2025, 16:48 Updated: 06 Aug. 2025, 19:35

Sapeon's X330 AI chip is unveiled for the first time during the SK Tech Summit 2023 at Coex in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, on Nov. 16, 2023. [NEWS1]

Three former employees of Korean AI chipmaker Sapeon have been charged with leaking state-designated key technology related to AI chips ahead of the firm’s merger with rival Rebellions.

The Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office’s division of defense industry and industrial technology crimes said Wednesday that it had charged two former Sapeon engineers for violating the Act on Prevention of Divulgence and Protection of Industrial Technology, the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act and breach of trust. The two were taken into custody.

Prosecutors also charged a former Sapeon executive without detention, along with a startup founded by the executive.

One of the employees, who worked as a team leader-level engineer at Sapeon, allegedly leaked core source code and other internal technology data in three separate instances between January and April in 2024, using external storage devices.

The leaked code is a crucial architecture-level technology that implements the design of semiconductor chips through a programming language.

Prosecutors said the former engineer joined the executive's startup in April 2024, where the employee allegedly shared the stolen data with a fellow employee and accessed it again in October of that year for reference in AI chip development.

The second employee, a former team leader-level engineer at Sapeon, is accused of uploading source code to a personal cloud drive on two occasions between January and June in 2024. The engineer reportedly kept the data after resigning from Sapeon in June that year and accessed it again in July and August this year to assist with development at the startup.

The former executive at Sapeon is accused of copying architecture data related to Sapeon’s next-generation AI chip onto an external hard drive before resigning in March 2023.

The logos of AI chipmakers Sapeon and Rebellions [SAPEON, REBELLIONS]

Sapeon developed neural processing units, a type of AI chip designed to process AI algorithms at high speed and low power. In December 2024, the company was absorbed by Rebellions, a competing AI chip developer. The merged entity is valued at 1.3 trillion won ($936 million), making it one of Korea’s leading AI semiconductor firms.

The former executive reportedly established a new startup after leaving Sapeon and allegedly took data before Sapeon's merger with Rebellions. The two engineers both moved to the newly established startup after leaving Sapeon and assumed team leader-level roles there.

Prosecutors estimate the value of the stolen data at approximately 28 billion won. But while the suspects referred to the leaked materials, they did not use them to develop similar AI semiconductors, according to the prosecution.

“Had they developed related products using the stolen data, the damage could have been much greater,” a prosecution official said. “We will respond strictly to industrial technology leaks.”

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
BY CHOI MO-RAN [[email protected]]