Raontech's stock price is rebounding. The news that Samsung Display has formed a dedicated extended reality (XR) development team appears to be influencing the stock price. This is interpreted as a learning effect from last year when domestic robot companies gained attention after the robot-related task force (TF) was upgraded to a robot business team.
As of 2:15 PM on the 27th, Raontech was trading at 7,600 KRW, up 610 KRW (8.73%) from the previous trading day.
On the same day, Samsung Display stated at Samsung Electronics' Q2 earnings presentation, "Since last year, we have formed a dedicated micro display team to prepare for the XR market," adding, "After the Imagine acquisition is completed by the end of this year, we will proceed in earnest."
Samsung Display also acquired Imagine, a U.S.-based micro organic light-emitting diode (OLED) company, for 290 billion KRW as a strategic move to target the rapidly growing XR market.
Samsung has designated XR as a future growth engine and is reportedly accelerating research and development (R&D). XR devices require high-resolution micro displays. Currently, various displays including OLED are being considered as candidate panels for XR.
Samsung Display explained, "The XR device ecosystem is rapidly activating recently," and added, "The industry expects that once XR devices become popularized, they will surpass smartphones and bring fundamental changes to people's daily lives."
Raontech's main products are ultra-small displays implemented on semiconductor substrates, and it provides related semiconductor chips and software in the form of solutions.
The flagship product is the silicon liquid crystal on silicon micro display (LCoS). Raontech supplies LCoS-based products to more than 200 domestic and international smart glass customers, including global companies. In addition to LCoS, it is developing micro OLED and micro LED technologies and products. The micro LED used in the XR field is a next-generation self-emissive display technology that uses LEDs with pixel sizes below 10 μm (micrometers) as display elements, also known as ‘LEDoS (LED on Silicon).’
Based on the world's first DMB chip development technology, Raontech is engaged in the DAB SoC business for automotive audio receivers in Europe, in addition to the domestic DMB field. By the first half of 2021, it had delivered approximately 150 million SoCs to global companies including Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics.
Han Song-hyeop, a researcher at Daishin Securities, explained, "Raontech possesses industry-leading technological competitiveness in the LCoS sector," and added, "It holds an 80% global market share." He further stated, "LCoS is expected to be mainly used in the early AR device market," and "Raontech will be the biggest beneficiary with references in the XR market."
The researcher predicted, "With major companies such as Apple and Samsung entering the market in the second half of this year, the XR market size will rapidly expand from 2024."
Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics upgraded its robot commercialization task force (TF) to a robot business team last year and has started full-scale investment this year. Earlier this year, it invested in the robot developer Rainbow Robotics. After Samsung's investment news was announced, Rainbow Robotics' stock price rose more than fourfold in three months.
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