Xiaomi Invests Over $20 Million in a Chinese OLED Company: Report

• Xiaomi might be eyeing the foldable OLED display panels
• Apple had recently invested in a Taiwan-based display panel company

Xiaomi has invested CNY 134 million (Approx $20 million) in China-based Dalian Zhiyun Automation Company. The latter is a manufacturer of foldable displays, OLEDs, LCDs and mini-LED technologies. Xiaomi will be getting a 5.63 per cent share of the company’s total in return of the investment made.

The report mentions that Xiaomi team had met with Tan Yonliang, the executive owner of the Zhiyun company, to finalise the deal. Dalian Zhiyun is known as one of the biggest companies engaged in delivering technologies for imaging panels. The company works in close connection to a lot of Samsung’s competitors including BOE, Huaxing, Tianma, and Visionox.

Eyeing micro-LEDs and foldable displays

Famous for its smartphones in India, Xiaomi might be eyeing micro-LED panels and foldable display technology with the investment. The report mentions that Dalian Zhiyun is the only company that can facilitate the complete process technology required for manufacturing foldable OLED displays.

Interestingly, the likes of Samsung, Huawei and Motorola have already launched smartphones with foldable displays in the market. Global foldable display market, as per a report by Future Wise Research, is forecast to value over USD 3.8 billion by 2027 end. The same might register a CAGR of over 61 per cent from 2020 to 2027. Foldable displays are mostly deployed in smart devices, particularly smartphones.

“The global market consists of a few key firms mainly from the Asia Pacific region and is highly competitive as producers compete to gain early benefits of merchandise commercialization over the competitors,” read the report.

TCL Communication has recently showcased it’s latest mobile display innovations with the world’s first rollable extendable display smartphone concept in addition to its trifold tablet concept. It is to be noted here that Xiaomi Corporation had bought 65,168,803 shares, or 0.48 percent of TCL Corporation in 2019.