Oppo cited poor market conditions for the closure, blaming “uncertainties in the global economy and the smartphone industry.”
Zeku was set up in 2019 and designed the MariSilicon X neural processor unit (NPU) made on TSMC’s 6nm process which is said to process Oppo’s noise reduction algorithm 20x faster while using half the power of a Snapdragon 888 powered smartphone. Zeku was working on a 4nm version of the chip integratrd with an application processor due out in 2024.
Zeku also designed an image processing unit (ISP) and a PMIC.
Although Oppo has the same owner, BBK, as rival brand Vivo, the two brands use separate supply chains.
Oppo has a 6.4% world smartphone market share, Vivo has 5.1%, domestic rival Xiaomi has 12% while Samsung and Apple together have 56%.
In 2022, worldwide smartphone shipments fell 14%, to under 300 million units – the first time it has been that low for ten years. In Q1 unit shipments were 67 million down 11% y-o-y.
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