OPPO shuts down its design unit behind MariSilicon custom chips

The fourth largest smartphone maker, OPPO, has ‘abruptly’ shut down its Zeku chip design unit—the company’s subsidiary responsible on the development of its custom chips including MariSilicon.

According to the South China Morning Post, OPPO has made a “difficult decision” due to “uncertainties in the global economy and smartphone market”. This is amidst worldwide smartphone sales continue to decline and the US implements its chip export restrictions against China.

An estimate of 3,000 employees working for the Zeku unit were shocked with only less than a day’s notice. Zeku workers were reportedly told on Thursday not to show up for work the next day. One employee stated, “I can’t even go back to the office to get the laptop.”

In 2019, OPPO began creating their own custom chips and they were first utilized in 2021. The MariSilicon X imaging NPU, which was used in the Find X5 series, was constructed using a 6nm process node and provided greater performance with less energy consumption.

The chip merged an image signal processor (ISP) with AI capabilities, allowing the phones using the silicon to capture images with less noise and take clear photographs even in low-light settings.

OPPO smartphones like the Reno8 Pro and teh Find X6 series had the MariSilicon X equipped.

The closure will not affect the performance of such devices, and upcoming phones were still most likely going to use the in-house designed MariSilicon chips.

However, this move means that OPPO will soon have to source most if not all of its chip designs from third-party companies.