Sharp announced that it will invest $570 million in its OLED business. The company will establish pilot lines at its plants in Osaka and in the Mie Prefecture. The pilot lines will begin OLED production in the summer of 2018.
A few weeks ago Sharp said it is aiming to collaborate with Japan Display on OLED technologies, and now the company said it is still hopeful to work with JDI. Following Sharp's announcement in August, a source from JDI said that they haven't been approached by Sharp yet.
Following Foxconn's $3.5 billion Sharp Takeover, it was reported that Foxconn aims to invest a total of $1.8 billion in OLED technologies, as Foxconn aims to become an OLED supplier to Apple. In June 2016 Foxconn's president said that the company aims to start mass producing OLEDs as early as 2017, but this was way too optimistic.
$570 million is a large investment, and it's part of the $1.8 billion allocated to OLEDs by Sharp - but in order to compete with Samsung and LGD a much larger sum and dedication will be required. LGD is allocating around $10 billion for OLED production in the next three years and SDC is also investing billions in new flexible OLED production fabs.
