The situation that the semiconductor market is going through is not positive, and it is that it is not going through good times fueled by the situation of the world economy. The uncertainty that the sector is going through is such that the well-known manufacturer of electronic products, among which mobile phones stand out mainly, OPPO, has made it known that it is closing its Zeku chip design division.
The company of Chinese origin created the Zeku processor division in 2019 and with them it has served different high-end devices of the firm. The closure of this division It also affects one of the company’s most recent chips, the MariSilicon Xwith which the firm powered its phones through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and helped in image processing.
OPPO, as Xiaomi also did, has always been clear that it wanted to enter the field of microprocessor design for mobile phones. Such is so In 2021, the company presented what would be its first self-designed co-processorthe aforementioned MariSilicon X, which would be manufactured by TSMC and found in devices such as the OPPO Find X5 Pro or those of the Reno 8 series.
Zeku says goodbye
The truth is that the exact figures of the workers that the division had and who are now without work are not yet known, but various news items confirm that the company was actively searching for new expert personnel.
Until recently, however, the company offered jobs, at the time seeking more than 100 profiles in architecture engineering, chip verification and software development in locations including Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and Xian. As a consequence of this, it is known that the organization would have hired over 3,000 workerswhich now seem to have an uncertain future.
The reasons for this decision, communicated from one day to the next to its employees, have been the uncertainties in the global economy in general and the smartphone industry in particular, as he has made it known. The economic investment so important that you need to not depend on third parties, does not seem to be profitable. The company also alleges this closure to the need to “make adjustments for long-term development.”
The company has explained its closure this way: “Due to uncertainties in the world economy and the smartphone industry, we have to make adjustments for long-term development. Therefore, the company has decided to cease the operation of ZEKU. The company will properly manage related matters and continue to provide excellent products and services to users around the world.”
On the other hand, OPPO’s sales could have been another reason for making this drastic decision, and it is that the company would have experienced a drop of up to 22% during the last year in its sales. In addition, the closure of Zeku could have been due to the difficulty in acquiring chips with advanced technology in China for companies like Zeku itself, which, although they design their chips, have to commission third parties to manufacture them.
In this regard, chip acquisition has been severely hampered by continued US export restrictions specifically targeting advanced semiconductors. Of the 3,243 chip companies in China last year, only 566 of them had sales exceeding 14.4 million US dollars.
A surprise closure for your employees
Until its closure, the OPPO subsidiary had a workforce of more than 2,000 workers, many from other companies in the field of chip design. The company made great offers to professionals in order to attract as much talent as possible and thus snatch away its top competitors.
The news has come as a surprise not only in the technology market but also among the firm’s own employees, who assure that they have not been notified sufficiently in advance. The Chinese company would have informed its workers of the end of the activity just a day before, with the only message that they not attend their jobs in the offices from the next day.
