The US government imposed sanctions against Huawei, which prevents the Chinese company to acquire components that use US-developed chips. According to a report from Korea, both Samsung Display and LG Display will have to stop supplying OLED displays to Huawei as these use drivers that are based on US-developed technology.
Samsung Display has applied for a US US Department of Commerce license which will allow it to export the technology to Huawei. LG Display decided not to apply for the license, at least for now, as its OLED sales to Huawei are limited in any case.
But Huawei is Samsung Display's third largest AMOLED customer (after Samsung Electronics and Apple) and this could be a big problem for Samsung's display business. Samsung also supplies memory chips to Huawei - and these sales will also be halted now.
Last month we reported that Huawei is starting to develop its own OLED driver ICs - and will start mass producing these chips later in 2020. Now it is clear that this move is part of Huawei's self-sufficiency move due to the new US sanctions.
Good, it's long past time for the civilized world to decouple from China. The evidence is in, and trade alone doesn't lead to democratization. China is actually moving in the opposite direction.
Time to move OLED and memory production elsewhere.