LG Display will add $7B to its OLED investment in an attempt to challenge Samsung

LG Display announced today that it will invest 7.8 trillion won (about $7 billion) to boost its OLED production capacity. This increases the stakes in LG’s competition with Samsung over OLED displays, a market that Samsung dominates by far, as Apple prepares to launch the iPhone 8, which is widely expected to come with OLED screens.

The new funding, which LG Display disclosed as part of its second-quarter earnings call today, brings LG Display’s total ongoing investment into OLED to 15 trillion won (about $13.5 billion). Part of the capital will go toward production of 10.5 generation large-size OLED displays in order to help LG compete with Chinese manufacturers and flexible OLED for both auto displays and smartphones. LG said it plans to invest in two new OLED production lines in Korea and one in Guangzhou, China.

LG’s announcement comes a few weeks after a report that Samsung, which already dominates the OLED market, plans to build the world’s largest OLED production plant in a bid to win orders from Apple. Apple, however, is also rumored to be developing its own OLED technology in a bid to reduce its dependence on Samsung.

According to LG, the market for OLED smartphone displays is expected to increase from 120 million units in 2017 to 370 million in 2020.

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