Growing demand for AI servers, advanced packaging, and data centers is reviving interest in idle LCD plants, with companies acquiring and converting existing sites into semiconductor packaging substrate lines, advanced packaging facilities, and AI computing hubs. LG Innotek is reportedly evaluating the acquisition of an LCD plant operated by LG Display, following similar deals in Japan and Taiwan.

Surging memory prices are forcing e-reader makers to raise prices, weakening demand and clouding E Ink Holdings' 2026 outlook. E Ink has cut its revenue-growth forecast, while Netronix expects shipments to remain flat. The companies are looking to electronic shelf labels, advertising displays, and products to offset pressure on consumer electronics.

Sluggish end-market recovery, cautious procurement by brand customers, and persistently high upstream material costs are frustrating panel makers' efforts to implement price hikes for IT panels. In October, quotes for mainstream LCD monitor panels held flat, while notebook panel prices continued a slight downward drift due to weak demand and slow inventory digestion.

Once a global LCD manufacturing powerhouse, Taiwan's display industry has weathered financial crises, antitrust penalties and fierce competition from state-backed Chinese rivals. Now, after three decades of boom-and-bust cycles, its leading manufacturers are seeking a new future beyond screens, leveraging their expertise in precision manufacturing to enter automotive electronics, advanced semiconductor packaging and AI-related technologies.

AUO chairman Paul Peng said Micro LED remains a potential option for optical communications, despite Largan Technology's doubts about pairing it with multimode fiber in co-packaged optics. The comments underscore an unsettled market, where rising AI data-center bandwidth needs are driving competing approaches, while customers continue testing technologies before adoption.

AUO is expanding its push into AI-related businesses, including augmented reality (AR) glasses, low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite antennas, optical communications, and advanced semiconductor packaging. The display maker has secured board approval for NT$24 billion (US$739.92 million) in planned investment for 2026, as chairman and CEO Paul Peng positions the initiatives as a route to growth and supply-chain relevance.

LED packaging manufacturer Brightek Optoelectronic expects its automotive revenue share to exceed 60%, up from around 50%, following the opening of its Nantong plant and higher shipments. Its third-quarter 2026 gross margin is projected to recover to 30%, although tight mature-node logic IC supplies, constrained by foundries prioritising higher-margin memory products, have complicated its efforts to meet growing automotive orders.

E-paper giant E Ink Holdings has officially launched its next-generation color e-paper technology, E Ink Kaleido 4. Chinese e-reader brand Hanvon Technology is the first to adopt the display, integrating it into its second-generation M10C smart e-paper notebook, making it the world's first commercial device powered by Kaleido 4.

LCD TV panel prices face a tug-of-war in the fourth quarter of 2026 as panel makers push for increases while LCD TV brands maintain relatively steady purchasing and contract manufacturers remain cautious. Rising upstream material costs and continued production controls should help prices stabilize, but a broad-based increase remains unlikely.

Global TV market growth is under pressure, but premium models are poised to expand. As rising memory prices fuel "chip inflation" and squeeze margins on budget TVs, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are reshaping their product mixes, strengthening OLED and Micro RGB offerings to support pricing through picture quality and feature differentiation.

South Korea's LX Semicon is seeking buyers for more than 60 silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductor patents, winding down a business it entered five years ago to reduce its reliance on display driver ICs (DDIs). The retreat comes as Taiwan's Novatek gains ground in the company's core display chip market, increasing pressure on LX Semicon to develop new revenue sources.