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Korea may face chip talent outflow on Trump expansion of H-1B

Published: 02 Jan. 2025, 12:22

CHO YONG-JUN
[email protected]

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk [REUTERS/YONHAP]

With U.S. President-elect Donald Trump publicly endorsing a visa program for foreign high tech workers, Korea is once again at risk of further losing homegrown talent in chip, automobile and other engineering areas.

U.S. tech companies like Micron have been active in on-campus hiring in Korea, while Chinese chipmakers are eager to tap veteran engineers at Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.

Trump told the New York Post on Dec. 28 that he has "always been in favor of the visas,” referring to the H-1B visa program, adding, “That’s why we have them,” practically giving an win to the faction of his party that support the H-1B visa program.

The remarks are in line with the stance of Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO who was announced as co-chief of the Department of Government Efficiency, and was once an H-1B holder.

The system, commonly called the H-1B visa, refers to the specialty occupation work authorization visa given by the U.S. government to temporarily-hired foreign talent. The visa, given only to workers in authorized specialty occupation fields, including IT, computer-related professions, healthcare workers, engineers and more, has recently been at the center of conflict: Pro-Trump entrepreneurs including Musk have been strongly supportive of the visa program and called for an expansion, while those in the president-elect's party who oppose foreign immigration have been calling for a downsizing or the outright removal of the H-1B program.

A supporter of Donald Trump holds up a sign reading ″deport illegals now″ during a campaign rally at the Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 24, 2024. [YONHAP/AFP]

The endorsement is attributed to the need to hire foreign skilled workers.

Musk, in an X post on Dec. 28, wrote that the H-1B visa is the “reason why [he] is in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies” and that the U.S. is “strong because of H-1B.” Google’s Sundar Pichai and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella also started their U.S. careers on the same visa.

Trump, during his first term, backed strong anti-immigration policies, including for H1-B visa applications — with rejections soaring as high as 24 percent in the fiscal year of 2018, compared to the 4 percent seen in 2021 during the Biden administration. But his soon-to-be second administration may just expand accessibility.

Immigration advocates hold a rally in Sacramento, California, on Dec. 2, 2024, to protest President-elect Donald Trump's plans to conduct mass deportation of immigrants without legal status. [YONHAP/AP]

Korean talent in semiconductors have for some time served as a coveted resource hub for Chinese tech companies that wanted to catch up with new technologies. Two former Samsung Electronics officials were arrested in September for allegedly leaking trade secrets to build a copycat factory in China.

Another separate case saw another former Samsung employee charged for leaking 18-nano DRAM technology to Changxin Memory Technologies in January.

The National Assembly, in turn, has passed an amendment to the Act on Prevention of Divulgence and Protection of Industrial Technology to raise the maximum fine for leaking technology deemed "national core technology" from 1.5 billion won ($10 million) to 6.5 billion won.

But there can really be no perfect solution when U.S. companies are scouting Korean talent with better pay and deals. U.S. semiconductor firm Micron Technology has been opening campus recruiting at Kyungpook National University, Konkuk University, the University of Seoul and Pusan National University in recent months. Micron went to great lengths stating that preregistered applicants will be eligible for a simpler application process; attending one interview before the campus recruitment and one on the day that offers are finalized.

The industry also fears that engineers in their 30s and 40s with young kids also have a high chance of being attracted to working in the United States — proof that living conditions, pay and corporate culture in Korea all lag behind.

Semiconductor talent is also not abundant in the country. The Semiconductor Industry Association estimated that there will be a shortage of over 50,000 skilled workers by 2032. While the government in 2022 had released plans to foster 150,000 skilled semiconductor workers, the future is not bright.

Sixty-seven percent of students who majored in semiconductor-related studies have found professions outside the chip industry in 2021 and 2022, according to data from the office of Reform Party Rep. Lee Jun-seok.

BY SHIM SEO-HYUN,CHO YONG-JUN [[email protected]]