LX Semicon sees Q1 profit jump from high demand for DDI

LX Semicon saw its operating profit for the first quarter of 2022 jump thanks to the high demand for display driver IC (DDI).

The fabless chip company said on Monday in its preliminary earning guidance that it recorded 585.1 billion won in revenue and 127.9 billion won in operating profit during the first three months of the year, an increase of 44.2% and 115.9%, respectively, from a year ago.

It is LX Semicon’s best quarterly performance to date, which South Korean analysts credited to the increase in revenue of its OLED DDI.

The company manufacture DDIs for panels both used in smartphones and TVs.

Hi Investment & Securities said in a recent report that LX Semicon has now secured Samsung Electronics as a customer, which means its DDI supply for OLED TVs will expand going forward.

LX Semicon’s supply of DDIs and timing controllers to Chinese customers BOE and CSOT are also expected to increase, the securities firm added.

Meanwhile, the fabless chip company is also attempting to reduce its reliance on DDI for sales. It is developing microcontroller units for automobiles. It also acquired patents related to silicon carbide power management ICs from LG Innotek in December.