Crime doesn’t pay, so the saying goes, and neither does the DRAM business, at least with the current pricing pressures in the market. But put the two together and the story could be different. A gang of eight gunmen swooped on a warehouse at San Francisco airport last week and stole dynamic RAM memory chips just in from South Korea valued at over $1.05bn. The gang got away with 47 boxes of 16 and 64-bit DRAM chips that had been shipped from South Korea by Samsung Electronics Co and Hyundai Electronics Industries Co, according to newspaper reports. The chips, which were insured against theft, were to have been delivered to the US subsidiaries of the two firms. Most memory chip thefts occur on the factory floor since San Jose police carried out a sting operation in 1996 against gangs raiding warehouses and manufacturers. Despite the pricing pressures, chips are still the basis of a highly lucrative black market, as their value is higher than gold and they are safer to deal in than drugs. Insurance companies have estimated that Silicon Valley loses up to $1m a week through theft from both outsiders and employees. The swag will most likely find its way back to Asia, and be sold within systems products. The Wall Street Journal recalls that Irvine California-based Centron Electronics Inc held the previous record as a victim of high-tech theft, when it was invaded by gunment in 1995, losing $12m of equipment.
