South Korean police have reportedly arrested two former Samsung Electronics officials for allegedly stealing technologies worth more than 4.3 trillion won ($A$4.81 billion) to build a similar chipmaking plant in China.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency alleged that the pair collaborated with local Chinese officials to build a semiconductor facility.

One of the two, identified as a 66-year-old surnamed Choi, recruited South Korean chip experts and leaked Samsung memory technologies via a joint venture, the police said in a statement, according to Bloomberg.

Seoul police have termed it as a serious security violation perpetrated through a Chinese JV, Chengdu Gaozhen.

Choi served as the venture’s chief and was aided by a plant designer surnamed Oh. The pair collaborated with officials to produce 20-nanometer DRAM chips last year, said the police said.

That not only damaged Samsung but “weakened the nation’s competitiveness when the countries are in a global chip war,” the agency said in a statement. Details of where this chipmaking plant is located in China was not revealed.

This isn’t the first time that a former Samsung employee has been arrested on suspicion of passing technology know-how to China.

In a case that surfaced last year, a former Samsung employee was arrested for allegedly stealing blueprints to try and replicate an entire fabrication plant in China.

Chip manufacturing has become a flashpoint between the US and China, with both countries racing to get ahead of the other in terms of the technology used to manufacture increasingly sophisticated chips that can drive AI technologies and are crucial in consumer electronics, weapons, communications and automotive industries, among others.