A few months before, it was reported that OPPO was near the mass production of its first self-developed SoC, a 4nm smartphone processor. However, the latest industry news has changed the scenario, and it seems that OPPO is facing difficulties.
This morning, it was reported that OPPO would terminate its ZEKU business which was responsible for developing cell phone SoCs for OPPO smartphones. On this matter, the company stated that due to uncertainty in the global economy and mobile phone market, after careful consideration, the company has decided to terminate ZEKU’s Business.
The company officials further said, “This is a tough decision. We will handle the matter appropriately and continue to make good products and create value.”
In 2019, OPPO established a core-making subsidiary, Shoupu Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. 2019, and later changed its name to ZEKU in July 2020. ZEKU covered the following product lines: Core application processors, short-range communication, 5G Modem, radio frequency, ISP, and power management chips.
After Xiaomi, OPPO is another brand that gave up on manufacturing its self-developed chips. Only Huawei is the brand in the Chinese market that holds the power to manufacture its own mobile phone chipsets.
Sources also reported that OPPO had invested over $1.4 billion in thousands of IC design and development personnel in China for research and development.