No More MariSilicon? OPPO Is Shutting Down Its Custom Chip Unit.

OPPO entered the custom chip game in 2021 when it announced the MariSilicon X-image NPU, which will appear in the Find X5 series and a few other phones. The company continued with its MariSilicon Y Bluetooth audio chip, but there's bad news for the company's chip design efforts.

OPPO has confirmed to Android Authority that it will shut down its ZEKU chip design division, which is responsible for manufacturer-specific chips.

Due to the uncertainty of the global economy and the smartphone industry, OPPO has had to make difficult adjustments for its long-term development. So the company decided to leave ZEKU.

The confirmation comes after the announcement of the closure of the chip design unit.

"This change will not affect devices using MariSilicon X," the company said in an email response to our inquiry. This means that future devices that plan to integrate the MariSilicon-X chip will still be able to use it.

However, we believe this shutdown means we won't see any new MariSilicon chips. We've asked the company to explain what this news means for future internal chips, but we haven't heard back yet.

OPPO has relied exclusively on the MariSilicon X chip, integrating the chip into the Find and Reno smartphone series. A hybrid AI/image chip provides stronger noise reduction, resulting in better photos and videos in low light. The chip supports real-time viewfinder preview and enhanced 4K HDR video. However, we thought the MariSilicon-powered Find X6 Pro produced stunning images in our short time with the device. So it clearly looks like OPPO was onto something.

The news also comes after brands such as Google, vivo and Xiaomi have introduced dedicated imaging and/or machine learning chips.