Roh Tae-moon, president of Samsung Electronics, will visit China's BOE late this month.
As the chief executive officer (CEO) of Samsung Electronics' TV and smartphone business divisions is visiting China's largest display panel company, it is drawing significant attention. Discussions on expanding various collaborations, including liquid crystal display (LCD) panels for TVs and organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) for flagship smartphones, are expected.
According to a comprehensive report on the 15th, President Roh is scheduled to visit China's BOE late this month. The meeting between Roh and China's BOE comes about six months after Chen Yanshun, chairman of BOE, visited South Korea last December and met with Roh.
Roh leads the smartphone and TV businesses as the head of the DX Division and the MX Business at Samsung Electronics. For this reason, eyes are focused on his meeting with the display panel company, which supplies key related components.
While Samsung Electronics is reviewing the adoption of BOE products as OLED panels for the standard model of the 'Galaxy S27' to be released in the first half of next year, attention is focused on whether this visit will accelerate the decision. Samsung Electronics sent a Request for Information (RFI) related to the development of the relevant panel to BOE and has been continuing discussions since then.
An industry insider familiar with the matter stated, “BOE expects Roh to present the supply opportunity for the Galaxy S27 OLED panel like a gift through this visit.”
If BOE supplies OLEDs for the standard model of the Galaxy S27, it will be a first for the Galaxy S series. Samsung Electronics has previously applied Chinese OLEDs to budget smartphones, but it has applied only Samsung Display panels to flagship models.
Previously, in 2021, BOE attempted to supply OLED panels for the Samsung Electronics Galaxy S21, but it fell through. It was pushed out of the competition due to various factors, including quality and unit price.
Recently, Samsung Electronics is in a situation where it needs to improve profitability by lowering the prices of other components amid rising smartphone component prices, such as memory semiconductor price increases (chipflation). BOE has a strong desire to have its quality verified by supplying to flagship models of global customers. As the demands of both sides align, observations that the supply of BOE OLEDs to the Galaxy S series will gain momentum are gaining traction.
However, concerns are also emerging in the domestic industry regarding the movement to adopt BOE's OLEDs, which have faced supply difficulties for Apple's iPhone series due to quality issues, into Korean flagship smartphones.
In the TV business as well, discussions to expand the procurement of BOE LCD panels are expected to continue. BOE was once Samsung Electronics' largest LCD supplier for TVs, but when it experienced an OLED patent dispute with Samsung Display, it sued Samsung Electronics in China for patent infringement. Consequently, Samsung Electronics virtually halted all transactions with BOE after 2023.
In November 2025, as Samsung Display agreed to receive OLED patent royalties from BOE, the conflict between the two companies came to an end. Since then, relations between the two companies have been gradually improving. The volume of LCDs for TVs that BOE supplies to Samsung Electronics is observed to increase from the low-to-mid 1 million units last year to around 5 million units this year.
An industry insider said, “As a thawing mood is being established between the two companies and relations are improving, BOE's position within Samsung Electronics' supply chain is expected to be further strengthened through Roh's visit this time.”
