Korea OLED Industry

Samsung Electronics announced its financial results for Q2 2026, with $120 billion USD in revenues - a company's record - up 28% from the previous quarter, and an operating profit of $62.5 billion, also a record for Samsung. These excellent results were mainly driven by high demand for its foundry, device and memory businesses.

Samsung Display posted revenues of $5.2 billion, and an operating profit of $488 million, an improvement over the last quarter, based on solid demand for high-end mobile AMOLED panels. It's large-area QD-OLED business also reported expanded sales, as shipments to the gaming monitor market grew. 

According to reports from Korea, LG Display developed a new WOLED display architecture, based on only two stacked layers. LG says that these panels will be cheaper to produce, but still maintaining high image quality, comparable to its 3-stack WOLEDs.

LGD says that the new panels achieve comparable performance under both 6,500-kelvin and 10,000-kelvin color temperature conditions. The new architecture offers a wider color gamut than the existing three-stack design while reducing panel operating voltage by more than 4 volts. LG hopes that the lower cost and very high performance will enable it to expand its WOLED market share in monitors, targeting more-affordable monitor segments.

Something interesting is happening in Korea. Over the past few months, almost every significant move made by Samsung Display and LG Display has pointed in the same direction - upwards, towards the high end, and away from the volume tier of the OLED market. 

It is not clear yet, but this starts to look like a strategy: the two Korean OLED makers appear to be deliberately conceding the cheap high-volume OLED business to China, and betting both companies on the supply of premium panels higher-end applications such as monitors, laptops, tablets and automotive. 

This article looks into the latest signals from LG Display and Samsung Display, try to decipher their new OLED strategy, look at the potential and the risk - and also explores what it means for OLED supply chain companies, such as material makers, equipment makers, and more.

LG Display is reportedly launching a new 3 trillion Won ($2 billion USD) investment plan, to upgrade its existing production small-area mobile flexible AMOLED processes and technologies.

LG Display was chosen by Korea's National Growth Fund, and have received a low-interest loan of 1.3 trillion to increase its competitiveness, as the Korean government hopes to strengthen its display industry and fend off Chinese competition. LG Display will reportedly contribute 1.5 of its own capital, and it has also secured a 200 billion Won in a private loan. 

LG Display reported its financial results for the second quarter of 2026, with a slight (1%) increase in revenue from the previous quarter to $3.8 billion, an EBITDA margin of 16%, and an operating loss of $73.5 million. That loss included a one-off expense due to workforce optimization and voluntary retirement programs, and without it the company would have generated an operating profit.

LG Display says that this is the first time in 5 years that it is recording an operating profit from its core business in the second quarter, which is seasonally weak. These improved results "reflect the company's business transformation strategy".

Samsung Display has begun to mass produce and supply tandem AMOLED panels for laptops that meet the newly-announced VESA DisplayHDR True Black 1400 certification. 

SDC's new tandem AMOLED panels  achieve a peak brightness of up to 1,600 nits, meeting the specifications of the new standard, that calls for black levels of 0.0005 nits or lower and a peak brightness of 1,400 nits at a 10% On Pixel Ratio (OPR). 

Last year, we reported that LG Display is looking into adopting Japan Display's eLEAP technology at its OLED TV production lines in Paju, perhaps seeking to produce RGB AMOLED displays for IT applications at these fabs that are currently under utilized. In April 2026, we reported that LG Display is progressing with this plan, and is checking an investment plan to apply eLEAP into its large-area OLED production lines.

Originally we heard that LGD plans to make a final decision on the eLEAP introduction by the end of 2026, hoping to secure Apple as a customer for these IT OLEDs. According to the latest report from China, LG Display has already ordered the required equipment - and even began installing some of the machine, that will enable it to convert its existing 8-Gen WOLED production line in Paju to eLEAP AMOLED production.