Zeku

History

2023: Discontinuing development and dissolving the team

On May 12, 2023, it became known that the Chinese company Oppo decided to curtail the development of its own mobile processors and dissolve the corresponding division.

The design of chips for smartphones as part of Oppo was carried out by the Zeku division, formed in 2019. At the end of 2021, the specialized MariSilicon X product was presented - a neural processor that provides performance of up to 18 trillion operations per second (TOPS) and energy efficiency at 11.6 TOPS/W. According to Oppo, thanks to its high processing power and high data throughput, MariSilicon X offers a revolutionary approach to image processing using artificial intelligence algorithms. The chip was used in Oppo's flagship smartphones, in particular the Find X5.

Oppo decided to curtail the development of its own mobile processors and dissolve the corresponding division

Oppo actively supported the activities of Zeku. Four offices operated as part of this unit - in Shanghai, Xi'an, Beijing and Chengdu. It is noted that the Shanghai department alone has registered almost 200 patents related to mobile chips and communications.

However, in the current macroeconomic situation, Oppo faced a sharp drop in demand for smartphones. According to IDC, in 2022 the company sold 103.3 million smart cellular devices, which is 22.7% less than in 2021, when shipments were 133.6 million units. Oppo's share in the global market at the same time decreased from 9.8% to 8.6%. Therefore, the company was forced to stop developing its own processors and completely close the Zeku division. This is expected to help improve the financial situation and direct the released resources to more promising and important projects. Whether other positions at Oppo will be offered to Zeku employees is not specified.^[1]

Notes