5.11 billion, LG Display increases investment in OLED

On April 22, LG Display announced that it would invest 1.106 trillion won (approximately RMB 5.110 billion) in "OLED new technology infrastructure construction." The investment aims to "enhance technological competitiveness by advancing OLED technology and lay the foundation for future growth." The investment period is from April 22, 2026 to June 30, 2028.

The company held a board meeting on the same day and decided on the new investment plan with the above content. Its purpose is to continue investing to enhance the competitiveness of OLED as the country's cutting-edge strategic technology, and to create customer value and seize future markets through technological differentiation.

LG Display announced in June last year that it would invest 1.26 trillion won in its OLED business. Among them, 700 billion won will be used for the front engineering (panel) production line in Paju, and 560 billion won will be used for the rear engineering (module) production line in Vietnam. The investment execution period ends in June 2027.

According to industry insiders, relevant construction companies won the bids for LG Display's "P10 Expansion Investment Clean Room and Utility Facilities" project in August and September last year, and it is expected to be completed before the end of this year.

The P10 factory is equipped with the thin film transistor (TFT) production line AP5 for mass production of Apple iPad OLED, and the evaporation production line E7. The factory can also produce OLEDs for iPhones.

The P10 clean room and utility facilities expansion project is considered to be preparation for the addition of TFT process. LG Display is promoting the investment required to apply CoE (Color filter on Encap, color filter on encapsulation) technology.

CoE is a technology that replaces the polarizer used to prevent external light reflection in traditional OLEDs with color filters, and replaces the ordinary pixel definition layer (PDL) with black PDL. Because the polarizer is removed, the light transmittance is higher and power consumption can be reduced. Apple plans to apply CoE technology for the first time on foldable products released in the second half of this year. Although this foldable panel is currently only mass-produced by Samsung Display, LG Display also needs to be prepared to supply OLEDs with CoE technology to Apple in the future.