On September 22 in Beijing, more than 5,000 attendees witnessed the tenth anniversary of the BOE IPC 2026 global innovation partner conference.
The event set new records across venue scale, guest roster, participant numbers, debut product count, and exhibition area. Yet the most noteworthy shift at this gathering, themed "Screen-Centric IoT, Building the Future with Light," was the changing composition of the audience.
This year, the supply chain companies in attendance were largely drawn from the optoelectronic integration sector. Over the past two decades, BOE has propelled its display business to the global pinnacle. Now, the company is actively cultivating innovative ventures in glass-based packaging substrates, perovskite photovoltaics, and optical interconnect technologies. As BOE's new corporate narrative pivots toward light, the question of how it will navigate the next twenty years took center stage at this year's IPC. During the conference, BOE Chairman Chen Yanshun sat down with media outlets to share his perspective on strategic elevation, corporate development, and supply chain leadership.
The path of transformation is also a path of convergence. The display industry is notoriously cyclical. When a business reaches the global number-one position and approaches the industry ceiling, failing to elevate its strategy inevitably leads to growth bottlenecks. The rise of artificial intelligence has created the perfect conditions for display convergence and strategic elevation. AI has upgraded the screen from a simple display tool to an intelligent interactive gateway, unlocking niche markets across countless industries. Simultaneously, the explosion in computing power and data has pushed traditional chip architectures and information transmission to their physical limits, making the shift from copper to optical interconnects an inevitable trend. Both of these developments fall squarely within the capabilities of optoelectronic integration.
This backdrop forms the foundational rationale behind BOE's bet on optoelectronic integration. Looking back over the past два decades, each of BOE's corporate positioning upgrades has been a deliberate response to prevailing trends, fundamentally representing a path toward integrated development. When it entered the display sector in 2003, BOE defined itself as a "display technology products and services provider." In 2016, it initiated its IoT transformation, repositioning itself as a provider of "smart port products and professional services for information interaction and human health," with the core mission of integrating screens across diverse forms and industries. Now, facing the era of intelligence, BOE has once again elevated its positioning to "drive intelligent connectivity of everything through optoelectronic integration technology."
"The key to future competition lies not in simple photoelectric conversion, but in maximizing the synergistic advantages of light and electricity within a unified system and platform," Chen stated.
In Chen's assessment, BOE's entire development history is essentially a history of optoelectronic integration: from the earliest electron tubes, to displays converting electricity into light, to glass-based technology converting light back into electricity, "BOE has been refining its mastery over the regulation of light and electricity." Now, in the AI era, BOE is extending its advantages into AI-empowered domains, resulting in products like glass-based perovskite devices, glass-based packaging substrates, and short-distance optical interconnect solutions. This remains the synergy of light and electricity.
The essence of the "Nth Curve" is the inheritance and innovation of development. The theoretical framework supporting BOE's leap toward optoelectronic integration is the "Nth Curve" theory, first proposed at the 2024 IPC and iterated upon for two consecutive years since. Based on years of display industry practice, BOE discovered that the marginal benefit trajectory of each display generation follows a nearly identical pattern: roughly every three to five years, it experiences an "N-shaped" cycle. The upward stroke relies on technological advancement and scale expansion to establish industry leadership; the downward stroke navigates cyclical fluctuations or technological bottlenecks by accumulating innovation momentum; and the final upward stroke completes strategic elevation.
"The journey from up, to down, to up again is fundamentally about inheritance, innovation, and development," Chen explained. Whether multiple curves can be sustained simultaneously depends on whether a company possesses "homogeneous and homologous" core capabilities that break through the constraints of space and time, enabling the curves to support one another and grow synergistically. This embodies the "ecosystem" nature of the "Nth Curve" theory.
In Chen's view, BOE's confidence rests on three core strengths and capabilities accumulated over more than two decades: display technology, glass-based processing craftsmanship, and large-scale integrated intelligent manufacturing. Currently, BOE's LCD product shipments have ranked first globally for eight consecutive years, holding the global number-one position in five major mainstream markets and numerous niche segments. Its flexible AMOLED shipments rank second worldwide. In innovative business segments, the overall scale has surpassed RMB 60 billion, with BOE achieving the number-one global shipment position in more than 20 innovative display fields.
Regarding glass-based processing craftsmanship, BOE's competitive advantage lies in transforming the processing of glass—which is large, brittle, and demands micron-level precision—into scalable industrialized manufacturing. To date, BOE has completed the construction of a small-batch pilot line, with products already shipping in multiple consumer scenarios. For glass-based packaging substrates, its pilot line has achieved full-process connectivity, and the company is currently co-developing products with customers. Glass-based processing is precisely the critical technology required for advanced packaging in the AI era, earning BOE a ticket into the computing power arena.
In large-scale integrated intelligent manufacturing, a series of accolades serve as the strongest testament. In September 2025, BOE took the lead in the display industry by launching and implementing its "BOE AI Factory." Additionally, its Generation 8.5 line in Fuzhou was selected for the World Economic Forum's "Lighthouse Factory" list in 2022, making it the first and then only display company in mainland China to receive this recognition. For BOE, manufacturing is not merely a cost center; it is a core competitiveness capable of continuous evolution.
Optoelectronic integration is not blind expansion. Guided by the "Screen-Centric IoT" development strategy, leveraging the "Nth Curve" theory to direct new business development, and extending and reusing its three core capabilities, BOE has laid a solid foundation for its strategic elevation toward optoelectronic integration. Consequently, BOE's strategic foray into the optoelectronic integration space is not reckless cross-industry expansion. Rather, it represents a measured response that secures the healthy development of its core display business while seizing the transformation opportunities presented by the AI era. By migrating its mature thin-film processes, large-format glass handling capabilities, and mass manufacturing expertise into emerging tracks, BOE is continuously driving its "Nth Curve" businesses to form new growth poles and cultivating long-term growth momentum.
In the domain of glass-based packaging substrates—a sector of intense interest to both the display industry and capital markets—Chen elaborated on the underlying logic with remarkable candor: as AI computing power and data volumes continue to surge, traditional organic substrates face inherent challenges such as heat generation and warping. Glass, being an inorganic material, offers excellent thermal conductivity and warp resistance, and can be manufactured in larger sizes. Glass will be the critical material for future advanced packaging substrates. Reports indicate that BOE possesses complete process capabilities for manufacturing glass-based packaging substrates, having achieved technological breakthroughs in core processes including TGV drilling, deep-hole copper filling, and build-up wiring. It is among the few companies globally capable of fully integrating the glass-based packaging substrate production line. The board-level pilot line, designed with a monthly capacity of 1,000 substrates, achieved full automated equipment connectivity in the first half of 2026, and has already produced and delivered large-size, high-layer-count glass-based packaging substrate samples.
In the perovskite photovoltaic domain, BOE has established a full-process R&D platform spanning from laboratory to pilot line. As of 2025, its module efficiency has set four world records: 27.61% steady-state efficiency for small-size rigid cells in glovebox conditions, 20.11% full-area steady-state efficiency for large-size rigid modules on the pilot line, 21.39% steady-state efficiency for flexible modules on the experimental line, and 16.6% full-area steady-state efficiency for large-size flexible modules on the pilot line. Furthermore, BOE is actively driving the deployment of building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), automotive photovoltaics, and low-light power generation scenarios. According to Chen, related products have already achieved commercial deployment and shipment in the consumer goods sector.
In the short-distance optical interconnect field, BOE has established a dedicated project team for Micro LED optical interconnect systems and glass-substrate CPO technology, conducting forward-looking technology research with ecosystem partners to accelerate breakthroughs.
"These three areas represent a new elevation in BOE's future optoelectronic integration innovation direction. However, BOE's future development will never forget its roots—extending its core technological advantages to empower future domains," Chen emphasized.
Addressing shortcomings and fostering openness to lead healthy industry development. Beyond elevating its own strategy, how does BOE intend to guide the industry in collective advancement? Standing in the position of an industry leader with 28% of global capacity and nearly 30% market share, Chen's most frequent topic of discussion was the health of the industrial ecosystem.
First, breaking the cycle of involution. Chen stressed that the industry must compete through technology and value creation, not through price wars. Currently, the LCD segment has largely achieved healthy and stable development, but competition in the OLED sector remains intensely fierce. Over the next five years, in addition to deep integration with AI, guiding the industry toward healthy development will be one of BOE's key priorities in the display field.
Second, elevating foundational technologies. Chen pointed out that foundational industries face the challenge of being undervalued and underappreciated. Basic materials, components, and equipment involve long R&D cycles with limited market sizes, deterring private enterprise investment. As a leading company, BOE has both the responsibility and obligation to drive its upstream and downstream supply chain partners to enhance the competitiveness of foundational technologies and promote the industry's healthy and stable growth. It is understood that BOE invests approximately 7% of its annual revenue into R&D, with 1.5% allocated to advanced and foundational technologies. Through the efforts of BOE and other enterprises, industry competition is shifting from pure hardware specification battles to user-value-oriented competition focused on "more authentic, higher-end, greener, and more fashionable" outcomes.
"But this is far from sufficient—there is still a long road ahead," Chen emphasized.
Third, building an open industrial ecosystem. BOE adheres to openness in products, technology capabilities, and application scenarios. The core purpose is to share opportunities and co-create value with industry partners. BOE aims to construct a "Powered By BOE" industrial ecosystem through deep cooperation with global supply chain partners, leading the industry from price competition toward value symbiosis.
The three directions Chen articulated converge on a single insight: industrial upgrading is never a solo performance by the leading enterprise. From self-discipline against involution, to persistence on the "cold bench" of foundational research, to opening technologies and scenarios to global partners, BOE is attempting to prove that China's display industry has moved past the "scale-up" phase. The lesson it must now master is how to become "stronger" through "co-prosperity" and "co-creation."
Two decades ago, BOE answered the question of whether China could produce its own LCD panels with a single screen. Today, it is attempting to answer a new question with the synergy of light and electricity: whether Chinese companies can participate in defining the next intelligent era. From display supremacy to optoelectronic symbiosis, BOE has completed three self-refreshing cycles in twenty years, and is now wagering on the next era with a twenty-year roadmap. The stakes are high, but as Chen Yanshun noted, the confidence of "never forgetting one's roots" comes from building each generation of capabilities solidly. Building the future with light—the future has arrived.