Court rules Chinese chipmaker CXMT stole Samsung's DRAM tech

A South Korean court found that Chinese memory maker CXMT's "Project Hefei" used a stolen 620-step manufacturing recipe from Samsung. The ruling is tied to CXMT's rise to roughly 10% global DRAM market share.

Why it matters: This puts a legal finding behind years of suspicion that China's memory industry has caught up partly through IP theft rather than independent R&D, at a moment when DRAM and HBM supply is already tight for AI accelerator makers. It could shape export-control and litigation strategy toward Chinese chipmakers well beyond this one case.