Samsung Hires AI Specialists for Semiconductor R&D

Samsung told the newspaper that Han will lead development of AI models tailored to semiconductor research and development. Hahn will oversee the creation of data that can be used directly by AI systems. The company described the hires as part of a wider effort to apply AI across chip design, process technology and manufacturing to improve development efficiency and productivity.

Han is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Seoul National University. A July 23 Maeil Business editorial reported that the university had approved a concurrent appointment under which he would spend half of the year at the university and half working in Samsung's semiconductor division. The earlier report supports the appointment but does not describe Hahn's role.

The Korea Times said Hahn previously worked as a senior data-engineering manager at Meta and as a senior developer at Persona. Samsung said it plans to continue recruiting AI and data specialists and distribute that expertise across the organization.

The two roles point to complementary requirements for industrial AI. Model development can target tasks such as design optimization, process analysis or manufacturing prediction, but those systems depend on usable, governed and well-described operational data. Hiring separately for models and AI-ready data suggests Samsung is treating semiconductor AI as a production capability rather than a single research project.

For chip and ML teams, the practical question is whether the company can connect those capabilities to measurable outcomes such as shorter design cycles, higher process stability or fewer manufacturing defects. The retrieved reports do not disclose model architectures, datasets, deployment timelines or performance results, so those outcomes remain to be demonstrated.