BOE Expands into Wafer Fabs and Glass Substrates, Squeezing South Korea's Chip Industry
Claire Weston
BOE is simultaneously advancing glass-substrate pilot production and a 12-inch wafer fab, extending its display dominance into chip manufacturing — a vertical-integration push that puts dual pressure on Korea's chip and panel industries.
How far along is the glass substrate line?
BOE announced on June 12 that its glass-substrate pilot line has completed full-process automated equipment integration, with a designed monthly capacity of 1,000 wafers.
The company has produced a 20-layer (9-2-9 structure) large-format glass-substrate sample and shipped it to select Chinese customers — some have finished proof-of-concept and moved into technical testing. This means → the product has passed the "can it be made" stage and is now proving "can it be used."
The timeline spans six years: research started in 2020 → RMB 390 million invested in a lab in 2022 → RMB 993 million added for the pilot line in 2024 → major equipment installed by 2025.
What will the 12-inch wafer fab produce?
Through its wholly owned subsidiary Tianjin BOE Innovation Investment, BOE is building a 12-inch wafer fab in Beijing. Total investment: RMB 33 billion. Core equipment was installed by December 2025; volume production is planned for H2 2026.
The fab will make display driver ICs (DDI), power management ICs (PMIC), and automotive-grade microcontrollers (MCU) — all feeding BOE's own latest panels. In plain terms = BOE wants to replace "buy someone else's chips for our screens" with "our chips, our screens" — full vertical integration from panel to silicon.
This reflects a broader shift: after the U.S. tightened restrictions on Chinese firms using offshore foundries like TSMC, building in-house fabs became a strategic necessity for panel makers.
Is BOE the only one doing this?
Far from it. TCL CSOT acquired compound-semiconductor manufacturer Fujian Zhaoguang in March 2026. Zhaoguang can mass-produce Mini LED and Micro LED chips using gallium nitride (GaN) — a compound material suited to LED fabrication.
Visionox is doubling down on glass substrates, committing RMB 5 billion to a project in Jiangsu province and bulk-purchasing optical and X-ray inspection equipment in April 2026 to raise pilot-line yields.
This means → China's panel industry is collectively extending into the chip layer — not a one-company impulse, but an industry-wide strategic pivot.
What pressure does Korea face?
Industry analysts note that Chinese panel makers' chip-integration push is rapidly closing the technology gap with Korea in display drivers and OLED.
Korean industry figures argue the country must accelerate investment in next-generation technologies to hold its competitive edge. In plain terms = Korea's generational lead in the chip layer is now being eroded in reverse — from the panel side.
The critical test: whether Chinese panel makers can hit volume production on schedule. That will determine if the competitive landscape is genuinely reshaped or remains at the planning stage.
Content is for reference only, not financial advice.