For those unaware, some companies in the micro-chip business only design and not manufacture. That applies for mobile chips too, especially if the company can't get manufacturers to build their designs. Yesterday, OPPO decided to drop that part of its business.
According to SMCP (via GSMArena), OPPO has closed its chip-making subsidiary (Zeku) with barely any prior warning. Zeku employees were informed of the news only on Thursday, giving them less than a day to find new jobs. The reason cited in a company statement was the "uncertainties in the global economy and smartphone market". This is referring to the fact the smartphone market declining in recent months, which is why the company may have decided to cut off Zeku.
Zeku was the subsidiary in charge of developing OPPO's MariSilicon chips
For your info, Zeku was in-charge of developing in-house chips for OPPO smartphones. One of those chips is the MariSilicon X chip, which combines an advanced Neural Processing Unit (NPU) with an imaging chip and multi-tier memory subsystem. Another one is the MariSilicon Y audio chip that delivered 24-bit/192kHz lossless audio via Bluetooth connections. Both chips are rather recent products unveiled during the OPPO INNO Day 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Although OPPO won't make new chips anymore, it might still use the existing ones for new phones. Or they might not, if future OPPO devices end up performing better with chips from other companies. What do you think? Let us know in the comments and stay tuned to TechNave for more news like this.
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