Oppo steps up efforts to develop in-house mobile chips

Oppo joins Huawei and other Chinese companies to develop in-house mobile chips that can help them reduce dependence on the US suppliers.

Oppo working on in-house mobile chips (REUTERS)

Oppo has hired several top executives from MediaTek, one of the biggest mobile chip companies in the world. The Chinese smartphone company has also hired engineers from UNISOC, which is primarily known for low-end mobile chips. The new recruitment drive is said to be part of Oppo's efforts to reduce reliance on US suppliers, according to a Nikkei report.

The report says that Oppo began working on in-house mobile chips last year after the US cracked down on Huawei. The US restrictions have hit Huawei's revenues hard and it has been unable to access key services from the likes of Google.

According to the report, Oppo is hoping the industry veterans will help propel its efforts to develop in-house mobile chips. Oppo is said to have reached out to executives from Qualcomm and Huawei.

"Oppo has been aggressively recruiting chip talent since last year as they realized that owning the chip design capability will give it more control over its supply chain," Nikkei quotes as saying.

"Developing chips, however, could mean burning a lot of money, and even if they have hired a group of experienced professionals, such efforts take years to mature,” the source added.

Oppo told the publication that the company already owns chip-related capabilities. On the new recruitment, it said that “any R&D investment” was aimed at bolster competitiveness of its products and improve overall user experience.

Currently, very few smartphone brands such as Samsung and Huawei offer self-developed chips.

Huawei has been offering in-house mobile chips for a very long time. The company has heavily invested in its HiSilicon Technologies division to accelerate the chip development work. Its mobile chips power a range of Huawei and Honor smartphones.

Other Chinese companies such as Xiaomi have also set up a chip division. But in the case of Xiaomi, the company does not sell phones running on its chips.