Zhaocheng Co., Ltd.
In the first half of 2026, the LED display industry navigated through multiple variables, including cost-driven price hikes, an arms race in COB capacity, vertical integration by panel giants, and cross-boundary exploration of Micro LED. Against the backdrop of a weak recovery in terminal demand, structural changes on the supply side have emerged as the core force driving the industry's trajectory.
Based on this, Hangjia Shuo Display has compiled the 6 key events that have shaped the trajectory of the LED display industry in the first half of this year, for your reference.
Industry-Wide Price Hike Wave Across the LED Display Supply Chain
According to incomplete statistics from Hangjia Shuo Display, as of early July, approximately 100 companies across the LED display supply chain have issued price hike notices. Some companies have already completed their third to fourth rounds of price adjustments this year, covering the entire process from chips, packaged LEDs, driver ICs, and PCBs to terminal screens. (Price Adjustment Tracking Collection)
As the wave of price adjustments continues, Hangjia Shuo Display's first-quarter forecast that packaged LEDs and modules might experience simultaneous price increases is now being validated. Unlike the broad demand-driven price hikes seen in previous years, this round of increases is occurring against a backdrop where terminal demand has not shown significant strengthening, representing a typical case of rigid cost pass-through.
Taking COB as an example, the COB market experienced a high start and a low finish in the first half of the year, with a quarter-on-quarter slowdown in the second quarter. After companies cleared their old inventory, the buffer against high raw material costs disappeared, leading to price increases as demand weakened. However, the industry's supply-demand relationship remains affected by capacity expansions and new production launches by various players. The price hikes represent passive cost pass-through rather than active premium pricing driven by a tight supply-demand balance. The industry's profit elasticity remains constrained, and in the second half of the year, attention must be paid to terminal price acceptance and demand feedback.
13 Companies Advance IPO Processes
According to incomplete statistics from Hangjia Shuo Display, IPOs in the display supply chain have significantly accelerated since 2026: over 10 companies are advancing their listing processes, with 6 having completed their listings. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange has become a major destination, with upstream supply chain players—manufacturers of materials, equipment, and driver chips—forming the main force in this round of IPOs.
On June 26, HKC officially listed on the Main Board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Currently, BOE, TCL CSOT, HKC, and IRICO collectively account for over 70% of the global shipment area for large-size LCDs. Previously, on June 22, Chipone, a display driver chip manufacturer, completed its listing tutoring registration. The LED display materials sector has been particularly active: Huigu New Material listed on the ChiNext board in April, Kangmeite was listed on the Beijing Stock Exchange on July 8, and Betterlife is expected to sprint for a ChiNext listing by the end of August. Capital is systematically tilting towards upstream segments with technological barriers.
Leading Module and Panel Manufacturers Continuously Expand COB Capacity
In the first half of 2026, the key area for capacity expansion in the LED display industry is COB, with the most active players being leading module manufacturers and panel makers.
The second phase of the Zhaochi Jingxian Nanchang project has been launched. The existing 3,000 RGB fine-pitch (COB) production lines will be expanded in batches to 8,100 lines. It is expected to commence production in late July, with monthly capacity jumping to the tens of thousands of square meters level. (.Review) Hangjia Shuo Display believes that Zhaocheng Jingxian's move is first aimed at leveraging extreme economies of scale to drive down unit costs and consolidate market share in its mainstream P1.2 specification.
On the other hand, this stems from its internal judgment that P1.2 prices have bottomed out and the supply-demand relationship in 2026 will be in weak balance; thus, it is expanding capacity against the trend to reserve capacity in advance for the P0.9 ultra-fine pitch and the P1.5 sinking market. Core process equipment has been moved into the PH2 phase of TCL CSOT's Suzhou MLED production base, covering pixel pitches from P0.7 to P2.6. Following upgrades in die bonding and packaging processes, the product's protective performance (waterproof/dustproof/weather-resistant) has been enhanced, marking the extension of its MLED direct display from indoor commercial display to integrated indoor and outdoor applications.
The "2026 COB/MIP Display Report (Special Issue)" indicates that while P1.2 will remain the main force in COB shipments over the next 1-2 years, an inflection point has emerged. By 2030, the total monthly shipment volume of COB is expected to reach 220,000 to 240,000 square meters, with the proportion of products with a pitch of P1.5 and above jumping to 60%. The core driver of this shift is that the cost-effectiveness of COB with a pitch of P1.5 and above is surpassing that of traditional SMD solutions.
This substitution curve forms the medium- to long-term underlying assumption for current capacity expansions, supporting the strategic logic of leading manufacturers to "trade capacity for market share."
The market landscape is thus being restructured: the professional COB camp relies on process accumulation and channel stickiness, while the panel camp relies on vertical integration and capital density. The combination of these two forces accelerates the substitution of SMD by COB, leading to stronger industry concentration. In the future, the focus of competition will shift from mere capacity scale to full-chain cost control and application scenario extension.
Changes in the Global Television Landscape
Against the backdrop of weak global demand this year, the television landscape has undergone significant changes. In March 2026, TCL Electronics and Sony signed an agreement to establish a joint venture with TCL holding a 51% stake, which will take over Sony's consumer electronics television and part of its commercial display product businesses (Crystal LED direct display is not included in the transaction package). It is expected to officially commence operations in April 2027. This marks the deep binding of the last Japanese giant independently operating a television business with a Chinese enterprise.
On May 6, Samsung announced the cessation of sales for its entire range of home appliances, including televisions and monitors, in mainland China. For LED direct display large-screen manufacturers, Samsung's contraction of official channels in its high-end Micro LED and QLED commercial display product lines objectively creates more space for leading domestic brands in the high-end commercial display market. These two events jointly point to a continuous strengthening of pricing power and technological discourse by domestic brands in the global high-end display market.
LED-related companies are concentrating efforts on Micro LED optical communications. The explosion of AI computing power is driving the demand for high-speed interconnection in data centers. With nanosecond-level response speeds and low power consumption, Micro LED has become a strong candidate for short-distance optical interconnect transmitters. In the first half of 2026, attention in this direction has surged sharply, attracting not only global tech giants and semiconductor companies but also frequent alliance and layout actions from various parties. In particular, LED-related companies are focusing their efforts on Micro LED optical communications. Among them, the layout progress of LED and related companies in mainland China is as follows:
◇ Zhaochi Co., Ltd.: Completed the R&D of Micro LED light source chips for CPO and entered sample validation; 400G/800G parallel optical transceiver modules have been shipped in small batches, and 1.6T optical modules are under development; in May 2026, co-established a Micro LED CPO joint laboratory with Hunan Normal University, targeting trial mass production in 2028.
◇ Changelight: Developed high-bandwidth dedicated chips for Micro LED optical communications, jointly developed optical communication demo products with Hisense, and has sent samples to leading optical module manufacturers for validation.
◇ Leyard: Cooperated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences on R&D, and has provided Micro LED optical modules for alternative validation of traditional optical transmission solutions; mastered semi-polar GaN Micro LED technology through equity participation in Saphlux.
◇ SmartSens: Disclosed in April 2026 the establishment of a business division dedicated to next-generation Micro LED CPO technology, targeting short-distance high-speed interconnection for AI data centers. In July 2026, publicly demonstrated a Micro LED high-speed optical interconnection demo prototype (10×10 array, measured bandwidth 300G, power consumption 0.8pJ/bit).
◇ Ledman: Ledman is collaborating with SUSTech to tackle TGV glass-based Micro LED and CPO optical communications;
◇ Xinyuanji: Relying on a 4-6 inch DPSS GaN epitaxial platform to achieve blue-light Micro LED arrays with a pixel size of <10μm, with a single-channel modulation rate exceeding 8Gbps;
◇ Saphlux: The semi-polar GaN Micro LED achieves a -3dB bandwidth of 690MHz, an increase of nearly 4 times compared to traditional c-plane LEDs.
Overall, the Micro LED optical communication businesses of LED manufacturers in mainland China are currently generally in the stages of sample R&D and customer sample validation.
Accelerated Capacity Expansion in the AR Glasses Supply Chain
According to statistics from Hangjia Shuo AR, over 30 new AR glasses models were released in the first half of 2026, involving more than 20 brands. Manufacturers such as Rayneo, Rokid, XREAL, INMO, XGIMI, and VITURE have iterated intensively. Consumer electronics and home appliance giants have also successively planned to enter the market—Huawei released AI smart glasses, Alibaba launched the Qwen AI glasses S1, iFLYTEK released iFLYTEK AI glasses, Google announced Gemini AI glasses at the I/O conference and collaborated with Samsung and Gentle Monster, and cross-boundary brands such as Dreame and Robam have also followed suit to test the waters. The terminal boom has reversely transmitted to the upstream, with the supply chain simultaneously increasing the capacity deployment of Micro LED micro-displays and optical waveguides:
▋ Micro LED Micro-Displays:
◇ JBD completed the mass production upgrade of 4-inch to 12-inch wafer reconstruction in the first half of the year, with the yield rate breaking through 98%. In June, it released the "Zoujuan II" full-color optical engine (0.1 inch, 10160 PPI);
◇ Nuoshi Technology delivered the world's first mass-production-grade 2.5μm pixel silicon-based Micro LED chip (~10000 PPI) in April;
◇ Hongshi Intelligent released the "Yunjin" full-color Micro LED optical engine platform with a volume of only 0.16cc;
In addition, Saphlux, Yanshan Technology, Aoshiwei, Weijiu Optoelectronics, and Xingxi Guangye simultaneously disclosed progress on related production lines/projects.
▋ Optical Waveguides:
◇ Lipai Guangjing and Nika Optics million-piece-level production lines will be completed and put into operation in 2026;
◇ Zhige Technology has reached a monthly capacity of 250,000 pieces (annual capacity of 3 million pieces) after capacity expansion, and is expected to deliver 1 million pieces within the year; Kunyou Optoelectronics completed a nearly 400 million RMB Series C+ financing in April for the expansion of its WLO wafer-level optical production line;
GoerTek Aolai, AAC Technologies, Crystal Optech, Guangna Siwei, Kunyou Optoelectronics, and over 10 other optical waveguide companies have intensively disclosed their capacity construction and delivery plans. Diffractive optical waveguides have become the preferred match for over 75% of new AR products with Micro LED solutions in the first half of the year. However, industry pain points are prominent: terminal products lack mature and clear landing scenarios, making it difficult to achieve large-scale consumer-level popularization. Whether the supply chain's capacity expansion can be absorbed by market demand remains to be seen.
The above is a summary of some major events in the LED display industry in H1 this year, all of which are included in the "LED Display Industry Quarterly Analysis Report". The Q1 quarterly report is on sale now, and the Q2 report will be released at the end of July. You are welcome to scan the code to subscribe.