Chapter 248: The Flame of Greed

Mujinwon (無盡園).

The warmth of a full-blown spring day was palpable through the gray glass windows.

Inside the tidy room, a middle-aged man’s voice flowed evenly.

“Father… when will he be released?”

Cheon Jun-seok, the vice-chairman, asked Choi Ha-rim, the head of strategic planning, seated across from him.

A troubled expression flitted across Choi’s face.

“The current administration’s stance is extremely tough… It’s not an easy situation. Especially the charges against the chairman…”

Abetting kidnapping, embezzlement, violation of the National Security Act through funding North Korea, concealing criminal proceeds—

With the confirmed verdicts alone, he faced a minimum of ten years in prison.

“So, there’s no way?”

Choi Ha-rim remained silent.

The current regime, advocating the eradication of government-business collusion, was increasing pressure on conglomerates.

And every citizen of South Korea knew that Ahsung Group was at the center of it.

Chairman Cheon Ho-tae’s arrest was seen as a symbolic ‘achievement’ of the current government.

Even mentioning a special pardon was difficult in this atmosphere.

Cheon Jun-seok sighed and asked his next question.

“What about my brother? How is he doing after losing control of Ahsung Motors?”

The moment the name Ahsung Motors was mentioned,

Cheon Jun-seok’s expression hardened.

If they had left it alone, Ahsung Motors wouldn’t have fallen into the hands of foreign hedge funds.

But because they unnecessarily challenged for control, they ended up losing Ahsung Motors to others, a situation that still seemed absurd in hindsight.

Choi Ha-rim cautiously shared what he knew.

“I’ve heard Vice Chairman Cheon Jun-young is now fully focused on Ahsung Bio. Recently, he added two new drug development pipelines.”

“Hmph, if he loses Ahsung Bio too, he’ll have nowhere to stand. He must be desperate.”

“Since the group split in two, there’s been a lot of talk internally. We need to somehow bring Bio’s management back to our side.”

After the management dispute known as the ‘Princes’ Feud,’

the once-mighty Ahsung Group split into two: ‘Ahsung Electronics Group’ and ‘Ahsung Bio Group.’

As a result, the authority of Ahsung, once called the ‘Ahsung Republic,’ had shrunk to a level incomparable to its former glory.

“Is there a way to reclaim Bio?”

Choi Ha-rim paused, choosing his words carefully before speaking cautiously.

“It’s difficult to act immediately in the current situation.”

“What do you mean?”

“During the process of Vice Chairman Cheon Jun-young giving up control of Ahsung Motors, he swapped the hedge fund’s shares in Ahsung Bio with those in Ahsung Motors.”

He gave up the non-strategic Motors shares in exchange for securing a stake in Ahsung Bio.

“What’s the exact shareholding ratio?”

Choi Ha-rim opened his prepared notebook and checked the organized figures.

“Vice Chairman Cheon Jun-young’s side holds 31.3%, and ours is 19.2%.”

“19.2%? I thought it was 21.3% including friendly shares. What happened?”

Cheon Jun-seok’s voice rose in surprise.

“Vice Chairman Cheon Jun-young’s side increased their stake through a third-party allocated paid-in capital increase, diluting our shareholding ratio.”

“Goodness… He’s really pulling out all the stops. Does this mean we have to give up control of Ahsung Bio?”

Choi Ha-rim shook his head.

“It’s difficult now, but by securing indirect shares through paper companies, opportunities will surely arise.”

In the end, all they could do was wait and see.

So, setting aside the troublesome topic for a moment, they shifted the conversation to the recently trending memory semiconductors.

“I heard the demand for HBM memory semiconductors is surging… What’s going on?”

At Cheon Jun-seok’s question, Choi Ha-rim answered immediately, as if waiting for the opportunity.

“Recently, the real-time live footage of autonomous driving released by Dojin’s Kang Tae-joon caused a stir, and globally, there’s a rapid increase in efforts to develop AI clusters.”

AI clusters require fast and efficient processing of large amounts of data, necessitating the use of HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), which stacks multiple memories vertically to significantly increase speed.

“But I heard we’re not responding well. Why is that?”

Ahsung Electronics prided itself on being the world’s best in memory semiconductor technology and production.

Yet, in the HBM sector, their presence was negligible.

Choi Ha-rim spoke cautiously.

“Actually, until three years ago, we were also developing HBM.”

“You mean… we’re not even developing it now?”

Choi Ha-rim nodded.

“At the time, Chairman Cheon Ho-tae directly ordered the development to stop, saying, ‘Why develop a product with no profitability, high heat generation, and power consumption?’”

Cheon Jun-seok’s eyebrows twitched slightly.

“Now that you mention it… I remember. When Dojin said they were putting HBM instead of our DDR memory in their Quantum smartphone, he called it a stupid move.”

“Yes. Following the chairman’s instructions, the HBM development team was disbanded, and the project halted.”

“Then, shouldn’t we reassemble that team now?”

Choi Ha-rim shook his head with a troubled expression.

“The thing is… I checked, and after the team was disbanded, most of the core developers moved to Dojin.”

Cheon Jun-seok’s heart sank at the unexpected news.

The current atmosphere suggested the AI semiconductor market was rapidly growing.

There was a sense of crisis that they might miss the boat entirely.

Cheon Jun-seok raised his voice.

“Then, let’s form a new team now. With our capabilities, HBM should be…”

“It won’t be easy.”

Choi Ha-rim cut him off.

He had also tried to reassemble an internal development team,

but the technological gap with Dojin was much larger than expected.

“How big is the gap?”

“At least two years. It’s not just technical differences like stacking structures or TSV yields.

Dojin has already completed a custom memory architecture optimized for AI platforms.”

“Custom… memory architecture?”

Cheon Jun-seok asked for a more detailed explanation.

“I’m talking about HBM2-compatible designs. Usually, it’s just about mounting HBM on GPUs or AI accelerators,

but Dojin completely changed the memory access method to match AI computation algorithms.”

Choi Ha-rim continued his explanation.

“Reverse-engineering Dojin’s HBM revealed that they’re adjusting memory mount methods directly at the OS kernel level, beyond the memory controller.”

HBM wasn’t just a storage medium;

it was being used like a computation cache.

So, Ahsung Electronics’ HBM couldn’t compete.

“Really… the gap is that big?”

“Even working day and night, it would take at least two years to catch up.”

Even if they produced HBM at the same level in two years,

Dojin wouldn’t be standing still.

By then, Dojin would likely have moved beyond HBM3 to a completely different memory architecture.

Even if they caught up,

they would still be ‘the pursuer.’

“Then, let’s skip HBM2 and HBM3 and go straight to developing HBM4. We can invest as much money and manpower as needed… Let’s start immediately.”

“But doing that could collapse the layers of technological accumulation.”

“Layers?”

Cheon Jun-seok frowned in confusion.

“HBM isn’t just about increasing TSV stacking numbers. With each generation, IO interfaces, ECC designs, and heat dissipation structures must be completely redesigned,

requiring accumulated experience.”

But Ahsung Electronics had no experience developing or mass-producing even HBM2.

Jumping straight to HBM4 in this situation was like trying to build a skyscraper without a foundation.

“This isn’t something money alone can solve. You need to build, test, stabilize yields… and repeat that process to accumulate experience.”

Wafer bonding, TSV yields, post-stacking tests, heat spreader designs, and system integration with GPUs or AI accelerators—

none of it could be completed with theory alone.

Cheon Jun-seok’s expression twisted completely.

“Then, how did Dojin develop a custom architecture straight from HBM2?”

“Dojin… has been integrating HBM with OS and AI since we abandoned development three years ago. Plus, they had the infrastructure to design and test their own platforms.”

“So, what are you saying? Should we give up on HBM production?”

Tired of hearing only ‘no’ and ‘difficult,’

Cheon Jun-seok raised his voice.

But Choi Ha-rim remained unshaken, answering in a low voice.

“I’m not saying to give up. We need to establish a realistic plan first.”

“A realistic plan?”

Choi Ha-rim cautiously looked around and lowered his voice.

“For example… the HBM kernel linkage structure Dojin is using now. We found out it was created by developers from our side.”

Cheon Jun-seok’s eyes lit up.

“Are you saying we should contact them?”

“We’ve already reached out to a few. They still have some internal access, and with the right financial compensation and positions… they could be persuaded.”

Cheon Jun-seok’s lips curved into a relaxed smile,

a sinister grin forming at the corners of his mouth.

“Good. Let’s proceed immediately.”

If they could secure core internal personnel and structural design data,

they could leap into the HBM market competition without wasting massive amounts of money and time.

A flame of greed flickered in Cheon Jun-seok’s eyes.