It’s reported that OPPO has launched its independent smartphone chip development project “Mariana” (temporarily named as OPPO M1 chipset), and has poached Jeffrey Ju, MediaTek’s former Co-Operating Officer from Xiaomi as consultant. It’s also said that T.L. Lee, General Manager of MediaTek's Wireless Communication business unit has joined OPPO’s smartphone chip department.
It’s reported that Li Zonglin intended to leave the company in the beginning of this year despite the unit’s persuasion. Given that OPPO is one of the unit’s major clients, MediaTek refused to comment on this piece of news.
T.L. Lee is a key member in the development of MediaTek’s 5G chip “Tianji”. He was the main lecturer on the launch events of 5G chips incluidng Tianji 1000 and Tianji 800.
In recent years, there has been news about Taiwanese talents being poached. It is said that some technical personnel from MediaTek and UNISOC were poached to OPPO’s chip development team in Shanghai.
