Samsung’s Lee may ramp up investment in QD-OLED panels

Samsung Electronics Co. may ramp up its investment in screen panel affiliate Samsung Display Co. to meet growing demand for next-generation quantum dot organic light emitting diode, or QD-OLED, displays.

Samsung Group leader Jay Y. Lee on Tuesday visited the Samsung Display Asan Campus, the display maker’s main plant in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, to tour the facilities and discuss business strategies with executives.

Lee, the executive chairman of Samsung Electronics, showed special interest in the QD-OLED panel facilities, company officials said.

His Asan plant visit comes less than two months after his trip to the Samsung Display plant in Hanoi, Vietnam last December.

“Korean display makers such as Samsung and LG have been dominant players for years. But Chinese companies are now catching up with them fast. There’s a sense of crisis among Korean companies,” said a display industry official.

Lee may soon announce an extra investment in its QD-OLED business to widen the gap with its followers, the official said.

In 2019, Samsung announced a 13 trillion won ($10.3 billion) investment in the QD-OLED business through 2025. Of the investment, about 3 trillion won has so far been spent on facility upgrades.

Samsung Electronics currently produces QD-OLED TVs in various sizes with panels supplied by Samsung Display, Korea’s largest display maker.

QD-OLED is a hybrid design that combines the brightness and colors of quantum dot technology, found in Samsung’s existing flagship QLED TVs, with backlighting from self-emissive OLED panels.

Since officially taking the helm of Korea’s top conglomerate last October, Lee has visited six major production plants, including Tuesday’s trip to the Samsung Display Asan factory.

In his first overseas trip as Samsung chairman, he traveled to the United Arab Emirates in December to meet with businesspeople and politicians and visit the Barakah nuclear power plant project.

Lee’s Samsung Display Asan plant visit came a day before the 40th anniversary of Samsung Group founder Lee Byung-chull’s Tokyo Declaration, which prompted Samsung's entry into the memory chip business despite widespread industry skepticism over the company's chipmaking capabilities.

The current leader’s recent spate of plant tours could be a precursor to an announcement similar to the declaration, industry watchers said.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong and Sungsu Bae at jeong@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.