After more than two years of patent litigation and a two-week trial, Taiwanese display technology giant AUO secured a significant victory in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division. A jury ruled that AUO did not infringe any of the patents claimed by Texas-based Phenix Longhorn and declared one of the asserted patents invalid.
LG Display (LGD) announced that it returned to profitability in 2025, marking its first annual profit in four years since 2021. The turnaround was driven by its exit from the large-size LCD business and a shift toward an OLED-centered business structure, with OLED products accounting for 61% of total revenue in 2025, a record high. According to ET News and Seoul Economic Daily, LGD reported 2025 full-year revenue of approximately KRW25.81 trillion (US$18.1 billion) and operating profit of KRW517 billion. In the fourth quarter of 2025, LGD recorded revenue of around KRW7.2 trillion, down 8% year-over-year, while operating profit surged 103% to KRW168.5 billion.
Below are the most-read DIGITIMES Asia stories from the week of January 19-25, 2026.
As optical technology continues to push toward ever more extreme miniaturization, metalenses are emerging as one of the optical industry's most closely watched inflection points heading into 2026. At the Consumer Electronics Show early this year, companies including MetaOptics and Kyocera showcased a range of wearable devices incorporating metalens technology, signaling that the long-promised shift from laboratory research to commercial deployment may finally be underway.
Ennostar Corp. is advancing its Micro LED technology from display applications to short-distance data transmission within AI server racks, aiming to achieve a significant boost in transmission speeds by 2026. The company plans to raise Micro LED data transfer rates from 1.25 Gbps to 3–4 Gbps and is collaborating with global partners to develop modules for high-speed intra-rack optical communication.
Smart glasses have transitioned from being a concept to practical use and pricing. 2026 is expected to be major for AI wearable devices, especially after the compute power of multimodal AI models is deployed. The lightweighting of hardware carriers has become the core issue determining adoption rates. Waveguide technology, with its high light transmittance and thin-form advantages, is reshaping the value-chain distribution of the global optics industry.
The display industry, evolving from LCD to OLED, now faces cost and performance bottlenecks, driving focus on new emissive materials and novel form factors. South Korean research teams recently achieved breakthroughs in stretchable OLEDs and perovskite LEDs (PeLEDs), aiming to maintain the country's leadership in display technology.
China's major panel maker BOE continues to struggle with OLED production for Apple's iPhones, with the problem unresolved since late 2025. During this period, Samsung Display (SDC) has taken over millions of iPhone OLED orders originally assigned to BOE.
Taiwan-based E Ink Holdings is scaling up production of electronic shelf labels (ESLs) as global retailers accelerate adoption. With deployments expanding across the US and Europe, and government backing to push smart retail solutions overseas, Taiwan is positioning itself at the center of the fast-growing global ESL market.
Ennostar, Taiwan's largest LED manufacturer, said it has entered a strategic partnership with the German epitaxy specialist Allos Semiconductors to bring 8-inch gallium nitride–on–silicon (GaN-on-Si) LED epitaxial wafers into mass production. The collaboration is aimed at accelerating the adoption of microLED displays in highly integrated applications such as augmented reality, while laying the groundwork for a future transition to 12-inch GaN-on-Si technology.
Sony's decision to form a TV joint venture with TCL is being read in South Korea less as a routine corporate reshuffle than as a structural challenge to the country's long-held dominance in premium TVs and OLED panels. The deal has triggered unease not only about Sony's future role in TVs, but about whether Samsung Electronics can continue to dictate the industry's technological and competitive agenda.
More coverage
