OPPO closes Zeku, but Xiaomi still thinks about the proprietary SoC

Xiaomi is by no means dejected by the sad fate of Bunny, the now-was chip division of OPPO that has been seen forced to close, a goal as ambitious as it seems necessary. The growing tensions between the USA and China are in their own way changing the profile of the semiconductor industry, and Huawei is the key example of this, a company that made its fortune thanks also to proprietary chips but that she was forced to pull the oars in the boat. The desire to follow the path taken some time ago by Apple is great, that is to create a line of its own semiconductors to be customized to one's liking, but clashes with a period ofeconomic instability which led OPPO to the extreme decision: but what opinion is the Xiaomi management of?

Xiaomi confirms that it is still working on its next proprietary SoC

Pressed after what happened to OPPO by investors and analysts, the president Lu Weibing made rather clear statements: "Chip development plays a crucial role in Xiaomi's core business. It's not about whether we're doing it or not: we have to do it“. With regard to OPPO, he stated that "it's a pity, (Zeku closure) fully shows the difficulties in the chip business and I would like to applaud them for their courage and innovation“. The official intention is to invest in the long term and enrich a chip catalog which has some options but which has not yet made the real leap in quality, as Huawei did with HiSilicon and its Kirin chips.

If you take off co-processors, like Surge G1 e Surge P1 for battery and charging e C1 appears for the camera, for the only real Xiaomi-branded System-on-a-Chip you have to go back to 2017 and to the Xiaomi Mi 5C, which flopped because of the Surge S1 and its extreme limitations. The company has "paid a high price and learned hard lessons” on that occasion, adding the need to “be aware of the long-term efforts, complexity and difficulty of investing in chips“. There has been talk of several times on the net what OPPO's SoC would have been like, a chip that would power one or more next-generation flagships, and there have even been rumors that Xiaomi and DJI are taking advantage of the shutdown to enlist the talent on the run. And while the "cousin" OPPO turns around, it would seem instead that vivo want to bet on it.