Struggling panel maker LG Display has reported a 4.3% fall in revenue and a wafer-thin 0.35% operating margin, with arch rival Samsung, ironically now their most important customer, appearing to prop the Company up through big OLED panel purchases that Samsung is using to strip TV share away from LG Electronics.

The business, which has racked up years of losses, only managed to deliver a A$26.4 million profit on A$10.8 billion in revenue after reporting a loss last year, and almost all of that profit was earned in the first quarter of 2026. The second quarter produced an operating loss of A$103M.

What’s not gone unnoticed is that it’s Samsung who is keeping LG’s OLED business afloat.

The Samsung Deal That Changed Everything

The relationship runs under a five-year supply agreement signed in early 2024, which reportedly started at 700,000 to 800,000 panels in 2024 and is set to deliver around 5 million panels over the life of the deal.

Analysts claim the partnership has grown well beyond the original test-the-waters phase because Samsung is simply a better marketer than LG Electronics, having carved OLED TV sales away from LG despite their arch rival having the advantage of manufacturing their own panels.

Samsung has been expanding its use of WOLED across most of its TV lineup because its own QD-OLED technology remains more expensive, creating a bizarre cross-supply structure where Samsung TVs use LG Display WOLED panels while LG monitors are now adopting Samsung Display QD-OLED.

The relationship has also expanded into gaming monitors, with Samsung launching its first WOLED-based gaming monitor in mid-2026 using an LG 27-inch 4K 165Hz panel.

Samsung Crowding Out LG’s Own Sister Company

Analysts claim Samsung is now strategically LG Display’s most important TV customer after LG Electronics itself, buying at a scale that’s crowding out LGD’s own sister company.

LG Display’s growing supply commitments to Samsung for TV panels have constrained its capacity to supply panels to LG Electronics, a remarkable statement about priority being shifted to the better marketer, claim observers.

The original rationale was filling LGD’s underused Paju and Guangzhou WOLED lines. Analysts estimated the Samsung pact could account for 20% to 30% of WOLED production in the first year and add over US$1.5 billion to LG Display’s revenues.

To put that into context, OLED hit a record 61% of LG Display’s total 2025 revenue, with TV panels at 19%. Samsung now sits alongside LG Electronics, Sony, Panasonic, Philips and Hisense as a core customer within that TV segment, and Samsung now sells more OLED TVs than its Neo QLED miniLED models.

Industry observers attribute the once-unthinkable cross-purchasing between the two Korean groups to one strategic driver, competitive pressure from China.

Third Round Of Cost Cutting In Two Years

Chief Financial Officer Kim Sung-hyun said the underlying business remained profitable in the second quarter excluding one-off items, and that the Company would pursue further annual earnings improvement in the second half through cost innovation and stronger competitiveness.

LG Display did not disclose the size of the charge, the number of departures or the annual savings it expects from its recent cost cutting initiatives, the third such program in roughly two years.

In April, Kim told analysts the enhanced severance package reflected the Company’s intention not to repeat the exercise.

Apple And Gaming Monitors The Next Battleground

LG Display began mass production of OLED panels for Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro models in June, splitting the supply with Samsung Display after China’s BOE was excluded, with Samsung ironically picking up the bulk of the deal.

The Company also pointed to gaming OLED monitors as a growth area as the monitor market shifts from LCD, a segment where panels command higher prices per unit area than television panels cut from the same glass.

LG Display exited domestic large-panel LCD production in 2022 and sold its Guangzhou LCD plant in China last year, completing a retreat from a business Chinese manufacturers now dominate. It returned to annual profitability in 2025 for the first time in four years, with OLED accounting for a record 61% of revenue.