Samsung and LG Electronics have outstanding results in 2025, and their panel business performance is

On January 28, South Korea's two major electronics giants, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, simultaneously disclosed their 2025 annual results reports. During this year, the two companies achieved breakthrough performance in operating profit, setting key performance records in their respective development history. From the perspective of core business segments, the panel sector shows a clear divergence trend: Samsung Display (SDC) maintains solid profits, while LG Display (LGD) has achieved its first positive operating profit since 2021, and the proportion of oled business continues to rise; Consumer electronics, Samsung's high-end product sales are strong. Although LG is facing pressure on product sales, its core platform business still maintains rapid growth.

Samsung Electronics: Operating profit in a single quarter exceeded 20 trillion won for the first time. Multi-business synergy efforts Samsung Electronics 'financial results in fiscal year 2025 were eye-catching, and many core indicators set new records. Data shows that as of December 31, 2025, the company achieved annual revenue of 333.6 trillion won (approximately RMB 1.63 trillion yuan), operating profit reached 43.6 trillion won, a year-on-year increase of 33.2%, and net profit also increased year-on-year by 31.2%, showing strong profitability. Among them, the memory chip business has become the core growth engine, benefiting from rising memory chip prices and explosive AI demand, providing solid support for overall performance breakthroughs.

The performance in the single quarter was particularly outstanding. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Samsung Electronics 'consolidated revenue reached 93.8 trillion won (approximately RMB 460 billion), a month-on-month increase of 9%, setting a record high; operating profit simultaneously exceeded the historical peak, reaching 20.1 trillion won, a year-on-year surge of 209.2%. This is the first time that the company has achieved operating profit of more than 20 trillion won in a single quarter.

In terms of panel business, Samsung Display (SDC)'s comprehensive revenue in the fourth quarter was 9.5 trillion won (approximately RMB 46.284 billion), and operating profit reached 2.0 trillion won. Overall results remained stable. Among them, the small and medium-sized display business has achieved steady profits thanks to stable supply chain guarantees and continued growth in smartphone demand from major customers. At the same time, sales expansion in the IT and automotive fields has further injected impetus into profit growth; the large display business accurately grasps the year-end consumption peak season opportunities, actively responded to market demand, and successfully achieved year-on-year revenue growth.

For the first quarter of 2026, SDC has made a forward-looking layout and expects that the smartphone market demand will weaken. To this end, it plans to consolidate the market share of small and medium-sized size panels by promptly developing and supplying displays required for new flagship smartphones; In the field of large size displays, we will focus on cooperating with the release of new QD-OLED products to further expand product sales and continue to strengthen our advantages in the high-end panel market.

The performance of consumer electrons-related VD and DA businesses showed divergence. In the fourth quarter, the combined revenue of the two businesses reached 14.8 trillion won, but there was still an operating loss of 0.6 trillion won. Among them, the growth in VD business revenue was mainly due to strong sales of high-end Neo QLED and OLED products, as well as effective response to seasonal peak demand at the end of the year. However, due to the continued fierce competition in the global consumer electronics market, business profitability still faces certain pressure.

In 2026, the VD business will focus on the dual goals of improving profitability and revenue growth. On the one hand, it will strengthen the layout of new product lines such as Micro RGB TVs, and on the other hand, it will focus on promoting high value-added products such as ultra-large TVs, QLEDs and OLEDs; at the same time, it will target global sports The demand for terminal product replacement brought by events relies on differentiated artificial intelligence customer experience to further enhance market sales leadership and promote high-quality business development. In addition, Samsung also has clear plans in the semiconductor field. It will increase investment in memory production capacity in 2026. In the medium term of the plan, it will start providing samples of standard HBM4E products and launch customized products in the second half of the year to help overall performance continue to grow.

LG Electronics: Annual revenue hit a new high, and LGD operating profit turned positive after four years. On the same day, LG Electronics disclosed preliminary earnings results for the fourth quarter and the whole year of 2025, and its overall operating performance was equally outstanding. In 2025, LG Electronics 'consolidated revenue reached 89.2 trillion won and operating profit reached 2.48 trillion won. Not only set a record high for the company's annual revenue, but also achieved revenue breakthroughs for two consecutive years. The compound annual growth rate of consolidated revenue in the past five years is about 9%, and the resilience of business development is highlighted.

Its core panel business LGD has performed particularly eye-catching. In 2025, cumulative revenue reached 2,5810.1 billion won (approximately RMB 125.859 billion), and operating profit reached 517 billion won (approximately RMB 2.521 billion). This is the first time since 2021, LGD's operating profit has turned positive, marking that its business transformation has achieved a major stage result.

The core driving force for LGD to turn profits into profits comes from the successful transformation of its business structure. In 2025, the company will officially withdraw from the large-scale liquid crystal display (LCD) business, fully focus resources on the OLED business, and accelerate the optimization of business structure. Data shows that OLED products accounted for 61% of LGD's total revenue in 2025, setting a record high. This proportion was only 32% in 2020 and increased to 55% in 2024, doubling growth in five years. By continuing to expand the proportion of OLED product sales and implementing strict management system improvements, LGD successfully achieved a profit transformation and got rid of the previous dilemma of continued losses.

From the perspective of product sales structure, based on sales, LGD TV panels will account for 19% in 2025, and IT panels (covering monitors, notebooks, PCs, tablets, etc.) will account for 37%, becoming the largest revenue source. Mobile panels and other products account for 36%, and automotive panels account for 8%. The product layout is balanced and multiple scenarios develop in a coordinated manner. It is worth noting that LGD's WOLED technology is still the mainstream technology in the OLED TV field, accounting for 53% of OLED TV shipments in 2024. It has reached an agreement with Samsung to supply 5 million WOLED panels in the next five years., further expanding the market size.

In the consumer electronics sector, LG Electronics 'display business (including TV, IT and ID) is affected by factors such as weak global market demand, intensified industry competition and increased marketing spending. It is expected to experience an annual operating loss and terminal product sales continue to be under pressure. But at the same time, its webOS platform business performed strongly. With a global installed capacity of approximately 260 million units, it continued to maintain double-digit growth and became one of the company's important profit growth points.

Looking to the future, LG plans to further strengthen the competitiveness of the webOS platform and expand the ecological influence of the platform by expanding high-quality content cooperation and improving service levels. On the consumer electronics side, it will continue to expand its lifestyle TV product line, while actively exploring high-growth emerging markets, and tap new market demand, relieve the pressure on terminal product sales, and promote the continued development of the company's overall business.