CHIP COMPANY MANAGER CAUGHT AT THE AIRPORT
According to information obtained by Intel News, a publication that covers global intelligence developments, the Belgian prosecutor’s office detained a 52-year-old Chinese-Belgian citizen, a former BelGaN executive, at Brussels Zaventem Airport in May 2026, as he was about to fly to Beijing. Suspicious; He faces four charges, including espionage, participation in a criminal organization and unlawful transfer of trade secrets. The prosecutor’s office suspects that gallium nitride chip technology, used in everything from electric vehicles to aviation and military systems, may have been transferred to China. BelGaN went bankrupt in July 2024. According to the data of the US Department of Justice, approximately 10 billion dollars worth of chip spies and theft are carried out worldwide.
DRAMA TECHNOLOGY LEAKED TO CHINA
A former Samsung researcher in South Korea was sentenced to 7 years in prison in April 2026 for transferring the company’s critical 10-nanometer DRAM manufacturing technology to China’s CXMT. The technology, including hundreds of stages of production, was moved to China and contributed to CXMT’s advances in advanced memory production, according to prosecutors. Within the scope of the same investigation, a lawsuit was filed against 10 people, including former Samsung managers and engineers.
2 NANOMETER NATIONAL SECURITY CASE
Taiwanese chip giant TSMC was shaken by an attempt to seize trade secrets regarding the 2-nanometer production process, one of the world’s most advanced technologies, in 2025. Taiwan prosecutors launched an investigation against three people, including a former TSMC employee. It was stated that the former employee later moved to Japanese chip equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron. Prosecutors sought 14 years in prison for the prime suspect.
RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE WAS BEHIND THE SPYING
In the Netherlands, former ASML and NXP employee German Aksenov was accused of transferring sensitive semiconductor technology to Russia. Dutch prosecutors announced in 2025 that there was intelligence that Aksenov had contacts with people linked to the FSB, Russia’s Federal Security Service. According to the prosecutor’s office, the technical information thought to have been leaked would be used to establish a chip production facility in Russia. Aksenov denied the accusations.
