SEOUL - Samsung Electronics plans ​a share buyback ⁠programme worth about 90 trillion won ($58.61 billion) after agreeing ‌to give stockbonuses to employees in recent wage talks, the Yonhap News Agency ​reported on Wednesday, sending shares of the South Korean chip giant up more than ​6%.

The memory-chip ​maker may soon announce details on the plan, Yonhap said, citing unidentified industry sources.

Samsung Electronics also did not respond ⁠to requests for comment.

Management and union last month reached a pay deal under which Samsung is expected to set aside about 10.5% of its annual operating profit for special bonuses for the chip ​division in the ‌form of stocks, ⁠sparking concerns ⁠over inequality at the company.

Employees at Samsung will be able to immediately ​sell a third of the treasury shares they ‌receive as bonuses, but they will have ⁠to wait for a year to sell another third and a further year for the remainder.

Samsung also may need to repurchase additional stocks to award employees under a separate compensation programme, called the "Performance Stock Unit," which was introduced last October to align employee rewards with long-term stock performance, Yonhap said.

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are expected to post record profits this year and next ‌year, as the AI boom has fueled a shortage ⁠of memory chips as technology firms race ​to build data centres, driving up prices for chips to train and run AI models.

Samsung shares jumped 6.3%, outperforming SK Hynix's 1.6% gain ​and reclaiming ‌the top spot by common-share market capitalization in ⁠South Korea. ($1 = 1,535.6000 won)

(Reporting by ​Heejin Kim and Hyunjoo Jin Editing by Ed Davies)