Audi and Universal Display Celebrate 10 Years of OLED Technology in Audi Production Vehicles

EWING, N.J. & INGOLSTADT, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 26, 2026--

Universal Display Corporation (UDC) (Nasdaq: OLED) and Audi celebrated ten years of OLED technology in Audi production vehicles, marking a decade of innovation that has transformed OLED lighting into one of the automotive industry’s most distinctive, energy-efficient and technologically advanced lighting platforms. The announcement follows Audi’s event in Ingolstadt, Germany recognizing a decade of OLED technology across its vehicle portfolio. Together with OLEDWorks, the companies are highlighting how OLED automotive lighting has evolved and its growing role in the future of automotive design, functionality and communication.

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Since the introduction of OLED rear lighting in the Audi TT RS in 2016, OLED technology has evolved from a breakthrough design innovation into a sophisticated platform that combines ultra-thin form factors, homogeneous area illumination, exceptional design flexibility and advanced functionality. Today, digital OLED lighting systems enable highly customizable digital light signatures, enhanced visibility features and increasingly sophisticated communication capabilities, redefining the role of lighting within the vehicle and creating new opportunities for vehicle differentiation, advanced communication functions and enhanced safety.

“We congratulate Audi on reaching this important milestone and celebrating ten years of bringing OLED technology to the road,” said Steven V. Abramson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Universal Display Corporation. “The continued advancement of OLED automotive lighting over the past decade demonstrates what can be achieved when advanced materials, engineering and design come together around a shared vision. Audi’s commitment to innovation has helped expand the possibilities of automotive lighting, and we are proud that Universal Display’s OLED technologies and energy-efficient phosphorescent materials have contributed to this journey. As OLED lighting continues to evolve, we see significant opportunities to further extend its capabilities to support the next generation of automotive lighting and communication applications.”

“Over the past ten years, OLED technology has fundamentally expanded the possibilities of automotive lighting,” said Dr. Werner Thomas, Project Manager OLED-lighting of Audi AG. “What began as a breakthrough design innovation has evolved into a sophisticated platform that combines design, functionality and intelligent vehicle communication in ways that continue to redefine what automotive lighting can achieve. OLED lighting has enabled us to create distinctive customer experiences while continually reimagining the role of light within the vehicle. As mobility advances, we believe OLED technology will remain an important platform for innovation, differentiation and future vehicle interaction and communication.”

The progress of OLED automotive lighting reflects collaboration across the OLED ecosystem, bringing together advances in materials, panel technology and vehicle integration. Today, Audi, Universal Display, and OLEDWorks continue to contribute their respective expertise as OLED lighting evolves toward increasingly sophisticated design, functionality and communication capabilities.

“OLED automotive lighting exemplifies what can be achieved when expertise from across the value chain comes together to advance a common vision,” said David DeJoy, Chief Executive Officer of OLEDWorks. “Collaboration among materials innovators and automotive leaders has helped transform OLEDWorks’ OLED lighting into the highly differentiated Atala automotive OLED lighting platform it is today. We are proud to work alongside Audi and Universal Display as we continue exploring new opportunities for vehicle design, functionality and driver engagement.”

Looking ahead, advances in OLED materials, manufacturing technologies and system integration are expected to further expand the role of OLED lighting across automotive applications. Building on a decade of innovation, Audi, Universal Display and OLEDWorks continue to explore new possibilities for OLED lighting that enhance vehicle design, functionality, communication and the overall mobility experience.

About Universal Display Corporation
Universal Display Corporation (Nasdaq: OLED) is a leader in the research, development and commercialization of organic light emitting diode (OLED) technologies and materials for use in display and solid-state lighting applications. Founded in 1994 and with subsidiaries and offices around the world, the Company currently owns, exclusively licenses or has the sole right to sublicense more than 7,000 patents issued and pending worldwide. Universal Display licenses its proprietary technologies, including its breakthrough high-efficiency UniversalPHOLED® phosphorescent OLED technology that can enable the development of energy-efficient and eco-friendly displays and solid-state lighting. The Company also develops and offers high-quality, state-of-the-art UniversalPHOLED materials that are recognized as key ingredients in the fabrication of OLEDs with peak performance. In addition, Universal Display delivers innovative and customized solutions to its clients and partners through technology transfer, collaborative technology development and on-site training. To learn more about Universal Display Corporation, please visit https://oled.com/.

Universal Display Corporation and the Universal Display Corporation logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Universal Display Corporation. All other Company, brand or product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks.

All statements in this document that are not historical, such as those relating to the projected adoption, development and advancement of the Company’s technologies, and the Company's expected results, as well as the growth of the OLED market and the Company's opportunities in that market, are forward-looking financial statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements in this document, as they reflect Universal Display Corporation’s current views with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated. These risks and uncertainties are discussed in greater detail in Universal Display Corporation’s periodic reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, in particular, the section entitled “Risk Factors” in Universal Display Corporation’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025. Universal Display Corporation disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement contained in this document.

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History of digital OLED technology at Audi in the Light Assistance Centre. Courtesy: AUDI AG

NEW YORK (AP) — Before there was Nine Inch Nails or Marilyn Manson or Fear Factory or Rammstein, before the term industrial rock was being used to describe music that combines electro-collages of avant-garde mechanical sounds with that of rock ‘n’ roll and metal: There was Ministry. And after 45 years, the pioneering band is calling it quits.

Founder Al Jourgensen, the group's mastermind and sole consistent member, wants you to know he really means it's over — done, finished, goodbye — after the release of their 17th album “Hate To Go — Take Out Or Delivery” on Oct. 30 and a tour to follow.

“It's time to go,” he told The Associated Press from his home outside Los Angeles. “Everyone says it’s their last tour and they're back the next year. Or they say it’s the last tour and they’re back for the next 20 years. It's The Rolling Stones playing into their 90s. How much money do you need? How much, like, adoration?”

For his band, this really is the end. There are a few reasons for that.

The music industry has changed, for one, and Jourgensen and his band do not see Ministry progressing within its algorithmic framework. And there are sociological and political grounds for the decision: “We’ve been yabbering about the same stuff for 45 years. Nothing’s changed,” he says. “It has gotten worse, and so it’s time for a new generation to carry the torch because they’re not listening to our message.”

The band has long released songs with strong anti-authoritarian and anti-fascist sentiments, and that continues everywhere on “Hate to Go,” from the heavy-as-heck “Voices of Hate” to the propulsive “Delete,” which takes aim at the ways in which endless scrolling and social media erode attention and reinforce negativity.

The issue with speaking truth to power, of course, is that at some point “every canary in a coal mine dies,” Jourgensen says with a smile.

“We’re quite happy with our decision” to call it quits, he adds. “We are quite happy with our career.”

When a band takes ownership over their own end, something interesting happens: A final album can become a statement, not a funeral — a bow on the end of a spectacular career. For Jourgensen, there were a few things that just needed to happen on “Hate to Go.” Bassist Paul “Ion” Barker, Jourgensen’s bandmate in Ministry and Revolting Cocks from 1986 to 2004, was welcomed back into the fold for the album's final track, “We're Still Here.”

And sonically, the album needed to reflect their multidecade run, to sound like a summation of Ministry without leaning into easy parody. “It has elements of hardcore, it has elements of ambience, it has your usual social commentary and your snapshot of society at the time,” he says. “It’s a perfect Ministry album. It’s like a greatest hits album without having any hits. It’s just beautifully wrapped.”

But it also sounds like the future, like so many Ministry albums before it. For some of the songs as well as the music videos for “Hate to Go,” Jourgensen utilized artificial intelligence, perhaps most controversially employing the new technology to simulate celebrity voices — most effectively, that of President Donald Trump on the no-holds-barred “Grifter.”

“It’s a very dichotomous feeling for me,” he says of applying the polarizing tech. “We’re fighting fire with fire. Trump puts out his little AI videos every day and we put out our AI videos.”

Think of it as similar to early Ministry experiments. “I remember when we started doing tape cutups, very similar to like William Burroughs and Brion Gysin … on celluloid to do our music in a metal landscape. That was exciting, back at the time,” he says.

Using AI was yet another tool in a unique application, but one he found to be unsettling.

It's a topic that comes up quite a bit on the record, like in “Singularity,” a reference to the technological idea that AI may one day surpass human cognitive abilities and recursively self-improve.

“It doesn’t seem so science fiction anymore,” he says. “The tiger is out in the lab, outside of the cage, and they can’t control it.”

Ministry will officially throw in the towel on Oct. 30, 2027 — one year after the release of “Hate to Go” — with a huge blowout concert in Los Angeles. Jourgensen assures there will be tons of special guests — a “fun mic drop” — but attendees will have to wait and be surprised to see who will show up.

After that, well, he's got other plans. “I am the Greta Garbo of industrial,” Jourgensen jokes, referencing the great actor who retired young and lived reclusively in her final decades. “I have a plot of land a couple miles away from my house where I’m just going to herd goats and deny I was ever in a band.”

As far as legacy goes? That's not something he has spent a lot of time thinking about, either. “Everyone’s always asking me like, ‘Well, what do you want Ministry to be remembered by?’ And the whole point is, I don't,” he says. “I don’t want them to remember us. It’s time for somebody new, and it’s time to get out. We did what we could.”

Or, even more simply put: “Later!” he cheers. “Hate to go!”

Al Jourgensen, leader of the industrial band Ministry, poses for a portrait on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, at his home in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Al Jourgensen, leader of the industrial band Ministry, poses for a portrait on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, at his home in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Al Jourgensen, leader of the industrial band Ministry, poses for a portrait on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, at his home in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Al Jourgensen, leader of the industrial band Ministry, poses for a portrait on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, at his home in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Al Jourgensen, leader of the industrial band Ministry, poses for a portrait on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, at his home in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)