In August 2025, China-based San’an Optoelectronics announced that it is set to acquire Netherlands-based LED producer Lumileds, for $239 million in cash. This acquisition was terminated today, after the US Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) did not approve the transaction due to 'national security concerns'.
Lumileds was originally a joint-venture between Philips and Agilent aimed to develop and produce LED lighting solutions mainly for the automotive industry and architectural lighting. Lumiled's revenues were around $600 million in 2024. The company is the world's third largest automotive LED maker, behind ams OSRAM and Nichia. It was to be a strategic acquisition for San'an.
Lumileds has an active microLED development project. Back in 2024, Lumileds together with XDC demonstrated a production-ready 140 PPI micro-IC driven microLED display. The display was based on Lumiled's 13x20 micron LEDs. XDC is no longer in business, and we do not know the status of the Lumileds microLED project.
San'an Optoelectronics is China's largest LED epitaxial wafers and chips producer, making over 24 million wafers annually - almost 60% of China's total production. The company has been involved with microLED technologies for many years, working with Samsung, TCL CSoT, and others.
In 2019 San'an announced plans to setup a $1.8 billion Mini-LED and Micro-LED production center in Hubei, China. In 2025, San'an increased its microLED production capacity to 1,400 monthly 6" wafers. Towards the end of 2025, San'an announced that it is progressing with its microLED products for AR applications, and is moving from the technology verification state, to the small-batch verification stage.
A few days ago we reported that San’an Optoelectronics, together with Tsinghua University and China Mobile, is developing microLED-based optical communication solutions.
