Recently, OPPO came with shocking news, chip design this road does not work, OPPO intends to give up. The subsidiary Zheku Technology ceased all its business and dismissed more than 3,000 employees. This incident has aroused attention and discussion inside and outside the industry, and foreign media commented: "OPPO no longer has a 'core' matter, and the burden of core manufacturing still falls on Huawei's shoulders!" "This article will deeply explore OPPO's development history in the chip field and its reasons for terminating chip design, and analyze Huawei's responsibilities and pressures in the chip field.
As a major giant in China's smartphone market, OPPO has been committed to improving the competitiveness of its own products. In order to achieve this goal, OPPO established a chip design company Zheku Technology in 2018 to try to reduce its dependence on external suppliers through independent research and development of mobile phone chips. It is reported that OPPO has invested hundreds of millions of yuan and hired top chip design teams at home and abroad in order to make breakthroughs in the chip field.
In just a few years, OPPO's chip design has achieved certain results. For example, Zheku Technology has launched two Mariana series chips, an imaging neural processor (NPU) and an audio SoC chip. In addition, at the beginning of the year, there was news that OPPO has designed a mobile phone SoC chip and signed a cooperation agreement with TSMC, using a 4nm process, plugging in MediaTek 5G baseband, tape-out is only a matter of time.
However, just when the outside world was looking forward to the mass production of OPPO chips, OPPO suddenly announced the termination of chip design, which is regrettable. The following reasons may be the main reasons for OPPO's decision:
Serious decline in mobile phone sales: In recent years, the demand for smartphones has continued to decline, and the frequency of replacement has decreased. According to statistics, in the first quarter of 2022, only Apple and Huawei achieved growth, and other manufacturers declined. As a mobile phone manufacturer with its main business, OPPO is facing great pressure in this market environment.
Input-output ratio is not optimistic enough: Although OPPO has achieved certain results in the field of chip design, the output is not ideal compared to its huge input. Core manufacturing is a capital-intensive industry that requires long-term R&D and huge investment. After evaluating the current input-output ratio, OPPO may believe that the return on continued investment in chip design is not enough to support the company's growth.
Difficulty in core making: From a global perspective, the competition pattern in the field of core manufacturing has been relatively stable, and manufacturers such as Qualcomm, Samsung, Apple, and Huawei have divided market share. For smartphone manufacturers such as OPPO, entering this field means competing with these industry giants, which is extremely difficult. Even Xiaomi has experienced failures in the field of core manufacturing, and the actual performance of the surging S1 chip is not ideal, and it has not increased sales in the end.
U.S. sanctions risk: In recent years, Sino-US trade frictions have intensified, and the United States has imposed strict technology and supply chain restrictions on companies such as Huawei. As a company that mainly relies on the smartphone business, OPPO has to weigh whether it can withstand US sanctions once it succeeds when considering independent research and development of chips.
In the face of OPPO's retreat in the chip field, the outside world generally believes that the burden has once again fallen on Huawei's shoulders. As a leader in China's communications equipment and smartphone market, Huawei has achieved world-class results in chip design. Despite severe US sanctions, Huawei still insists on investing in HiSilicon research and development and strives to make breakthroughs in the chip field.
However, Huawei's responsibility in the field of chips is not easy. First of all, Huawei has experienced many setbacks in chip design, and after investing huge amounts of money in the early stage, it has gradually got on the right track and competed with Apple, Qualcomm and other manufacturers. Second, in the face of US sanctions, Huawei not only needs to solve supply chain problems, but also deal with competitive pressure from the global market. In order to achieve this goal, Huawei needs to make great efforts in technology, capital, and talent.
In the next few years, with the continuous introduction of national support policies for the chip industry and the increase in R&D investment by enterprises, the domestic chip industry is expected to make more breakthroughs. On the one hand, domestic enterprises will further improve their independent research and development capabilities, so as to occupy a place in the global chip market; On the other hand, cross-border cooperation and technology introduction will provide new impetus for the development of the domestic chip industry.
Although the domestic chip industry has broad development prospects, there are still many challenges to be met before a breakthrough can be achieved.
(1) Technical problems: At present, the global chip industry is fiercely competitive, especially in the field of high-performance chips. In order to achieve a dominant position in the market, domestic enterprises must overcome many technical problems and realize independent innovation of core technologies.
(2) Supply chain issues: In the context of globalization, the chip industry chain is widely distributed and interdependent among countries. In the face of external pressure, domestic enterprises need to strengthen supply chain construction and reduce dependence on external suppliers.
(3) Talent shortage: The chip industry is a highly specialized field that requires a large number of talents with professional knowledge and skills. At present, the talent reserve of the domestic chip industry is relatively insufficient, and it is necessary to increase the intensity of talent training to provide a steady stream of manpower support for industrial development.
(4) Market competition: In the process of development, the domestic chip industry needs to deal with the competitive pressure from the international market. How to stand out in the global market will be a big challenge.
conclusion
OPPO's termination of chip design means that the road of Chinese smartphone manufacturers in the field of core manufacturing has become more difficult. Nevertheless, we should still see China's unremitting efforts in the chip industry. As a leader in China's chip industry, Huawei will undertake an important mission and continue to explore the development path of domestic chips.
In the future, if Chinese smartphone manufacturers want to get rid of their dependence on external suppliers, they must increase investment and climb the peak of the chip industry. At the same time, the government and the industry should also increase support to provide strong protection for Chinese smartphone manufacturers in the field of core manufacturing. Through cooperation, innovation and continuous efforts, we have reason to believe that China's chip industry will eventually rise and contribute to the progress of national scientific and technological strength.