Samsung and LG Spending Billions on OLED Production Capacity for iPads and MacBooks [Report]

Samsung and LG are spending billions on new production capacity to make OLED display panels for Apple iPads and MacBooks, according to Nikkei report.

Samsung is investing 4.1 trillion won ($3.05 billion) to install new OLED production lines at its Tangjeong campus in South Korea. The company will make OLED panels from 8.6-generation substrates measuring 2620x2200mm. It purportedly plans to make around 10 million midsize panels for notebook computers per year, with production slated to start in 2026.

Currently, Samsung makes OLED panels for its smartphones, as well as Apple's. The panels are sixth-generation substrates, measuring 1850x1500mm.


Adopting 8.6-generation substrates would more than double production efficiency based on a simple calculation. Panels are made by forming circuits to glass substrates and dividing the substrates. Bigger substrates would produce more panels. But because larger-sized substrates demand more complex technological processes, the bigger substrates can lead to diminished production yields.

LG is reportedly spending 3.3 trillion won on new production lines at its Paju plant. The lines will use sixth-generation technology, as the company has reportedly calculated that technological and cost considerations make it infeasible to match Samsung.

Apple is widely expected to adopt OLED for the iPad in 2024. Additionally, the company will eventually upgrade its MacBook models to OLED as well.

Nikkei notes that the aggressive investment in OLED is due to pressure from Chinese manufacturer BOE.


Now BOE and compatriots Visionox and Everdisplay Optronics are expanding OLED production capacity, helped by subsidies from local governments. Samsung and LG Display still together have 80% or so of the global OLED market. But Chinese suppliers are slowly but steadily gaining in smartphone OLED panels.

As Chinese rivals have yet to make serious headway in production of midsize OLED panels, so this is seen as a potential growth market for both Samsung and LG.

More details in the full report linked below...

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