Future Displays: STRATACACHE’s Billion Dollar Bet On Building America’s MicroLED Future
January 20, 2025 by Dave Haynes
This is a reworked version of a story from the new Sixteen:Nine Future Displays report – a free download available to all readers. You can find the information and download page here …
I did a lengthy interview with STRATACACHE CEO Chris Riegel about the status of the microLED manufacturing – not just assembly – plant that is coming together and expected to be operational this year. This is a quick summary of some key points, but if you want to know what the largest software and solutions company and its driven founder-owner are up to, the full interview is well worth the read …
Chris Riegel has made a billion dollar-plus bet on spinning up what will be the first high-volume microLED manufacturing plant in North America, working with the expectation that technology advances and maturity will eventually make microLED less costly than even flat panel LCDs.
Riegel bought an abandoned Hynix semiconductor plant in Eugene, Oregon that’s been collecting dust since the late 90s, picking it up for $6.3 million and slowly turning it into something that could shake up the display industry.
The plant is now roughly 60% equipped with the necessary machines, with full production expected to begin in 2025. Development has been slowed by supply chain, with the rise of AI making semiconductor equipment hard to even obtain.
Giant, premium TVs have been positioned as a key market for microLED, but Riegel thinks that’s nutty. “There’s no logic, or you have to be suicidal to compete with the Chinese for the TV in Walmart, aisle five,” says a characteristically blunt Riegel. “We’re heavily focused on specialty microLED display, automotive, vision-enhanced and special use-cases of military, transportation, and medical.”
Riegel also has a history of trying to control as much as he can of the tech stack, and sees a big opportunity replacing high-bright LCDs used for drive-thru pre-sell and ordering displays with microLED displays that should have triple the useful operating lives of conventional flat panels, and eventually cost about the same.
“MicroLED can be cheaper than TFT LCD on a cost per square meter basis,” Riegel says, suggesting a 90-95% cost reduction is achievable over time.
Tariffs and global tensions may well work in Riegel’s favor as Trump returns to the White House. With current U.S. tariffs on Chinese displays at 22.5% and potentially rising to 60%, domestic manufacturing becomes increasingly viable. More crucially, Riegel says major automotive and aviation companies are being warned by the U.S. government to secure domestic display supply chains by 2027, anticipating more geopolitical tensions with China.
You can download the interview, part of a nearly 250 page report on Future Display tech here, and it is totally free. No strings other than a very short form to get a sense of who is downloading, and how many.
Excited about this!