OPPO disbanded the ZEKU team, and the boss behind the scenes said, "Developing chips is a mistake, stop losses in a timely manner

Recently, the news that OPPO has stopped the ZEKU business sector is very hot. Although OPPO started relatively late in the field of chips, it invested a huge amount of resources. According to official recruitment information, when OPPO recruits employees in the chip department, their overall annual salary is around several hundred thousand yuan, indicating the importance OPPO places on chips.

The previous Mariana X was considered an NPU chip successfully mass-produced by OPPO, with a focus on image optimization and visible improvement effects. In terms of development pace, OPPO's next step is to develop SOC chips.

Looking at domestic mobile phone brands, the one that has survived in the market is Haisi Qilin before being sanctioned. Due to its craftsmanship and level of expertise, Xiaomi's surging S1 did not have a good reputation in the market and was tightly suppressed by the Snapdragon 625 of the same period. There was no news about the surging s2.

If Kirin and Pengpai were severely damaged due to other reasons, then OPPO's ZEKU chose to exit on its own.

Duan Yongping, the boss of Bubugao, publicly explained on media platforms the reason why OPPO gave up ZEKU, which is that it invested too much resources, which in his opinion is a very wrong development direction.

The semiconductor industry itself is a bottomless pit and requires continuous investment of resources in order to continue with the next step of development.

Huawei is a communication startup manufacturer with a deep background and technical barriers in the international communication field. It can continuously provide funding for HiSilicon Semiconductor and develop Kirin chips.

Xiaomi's surge is backed by Datang Telecom, which has a subsidiary of Lianxin Technology that specializes in designing mobile phone chips. Xiaomi has partnered with Lianxin to form a joint venture with Pineapple Electronics. Xiaomi can naturally use Lianxin's product technology, so the surging S1 only achieved mass production in 28 months.

However, starting from 2018, Datang Telecom began to adjust its strategic deployment and withdraw from the field of mobile chip design. Its subsidiary Lianxin Technology also transferred the latest technology patents to Chenxin Technology. Without the support of the Tang Dynasty, Xiaomi's surging s2 is also far away.

As an experienced investor in the investment industry, Duan Yongping probably won't invest in industries that he knows will lose money but still needs to develop. Although he has already withdrawn from the direct management of OPPO and vivo, these two mobile phone brands cannot be separated from him.

OPPO President Chen Mingyong once had great confidence in OPPO's attack on the chip field, and it was an inevitable direction for development.

He stated at the press conference:

Mariana MariSiliconX is just a small step towards OPPO's self-developed chips. In the future, OPPO will continue to invest resources and use a team of thousands of people to work hard on self-developed chips. No matter how many challenges lie ahead, we will persevere and remain steadfast in our efforts

I personally believe that it is highly likely that Duan Yongping stopped the ZEKU business as a precautionary measure. Regardless of the previous cost, timely stop loss is the minimum cost.

According to an article published by media 36 Kr, the 4nm chip developed by ZEKU is somewhat advanced in technology and is highly likely to be suppressed by the United States like Huawei, cutting off cooperation between upstream and downstream supply chains.

The article also states that OPPO is different from Huawei in that Huawei can continue to bring economic development through other business sectors, while OPPO's profit source is almost solely mobile phones. Once the mobile phone business is severely damaged, it would be a devastating blow to OPPO.

So it seems that the reason for OPPO to close its chip business is already very clear, that is, in order to prevent the chip business from being affected by US sanctions in the future and affecting the normal operation of the company, it cancelled this business in advance, extinguished the fire source from the source, and reduced the level of danger to the lowest.