MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s second-largest handset chip designer, yesterday declined to comment on a report that China’s second-largest smartphone maker, Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀), is poaching its highest-ranking executive in charge of 5G chip development.
The company said that it had its employees sign agreements on labor ethics.
Most Taiwanese tech companies impose “revolving door” restrictions on employees, preventing them from leaving for competitors.
MediaTek shares yesterday climbed 0.98 percent to close at NT$464.5, compared with the TAIEX climbing 0.16 percent. Turnover jumped 22 percent to 8.15 million shares, compared with 6.68 million shares on Tuesday.
Investors did not flinch when the Nikkei Asian Review reported that Oppo is ramping up its talent hunt after earlier hiring several professionals from its key chip suppliers, MediaTek and UNISOC Communications Inc (紫光展銳), to build an in-house chip development team and reduce reliance on US chipmakers.
Oppo has hired Jeffery Ju (朱尚組), MediaTek’s former cochief operating officer, as a consultant, while another MediaTek executive formerly involved in the development of the firm’s 5G smartphone chip is to join Oppo as soon next month, Nikkei said.
Ju left MediaTek in 2017.
Nikkei did not reveal the name of the MediaTek executive.
MediaTek said that it has over the past few years invested more than NT$100 billion (US$3.33 billion) in developing 5G chips and built a team of 3,000 engineers.
Oppo is the first smartphone maker adopting MediaTek’s first 5G system-on-chip (SoC), the Dimensity 1000, combined with Qualcomm Inc’s 5G chip for Oppo’s Reno 3 series.
MediaTek’s general manager T.L. Lee (李宗霖), who heads its 5G team, was targeted by Oppo in talent poaching efforts, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported in February.
Lee, who has worked at MediaTek for 18 years, was the architect behind its business model that focuses on offering chip reference design to its Chinese clients, allowing them to accelerate time to market.
In December last year, Lee joined chief financial officer David Ku (顧大為) at the unveiling of the company’s roadmap for developing its second 5G SoC, the Dimensity 800, for mid to high-range smartphones, which is scheduled to be presented this quarter.
MediaTek also plans to launch its first 5G chips that would support millimeter-wave technology by the end of this year, Lee said at the ceremony.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, surpassing the US$600 billion mark for the first time, the central bank said yesterday. Last month, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$5.51 billion from a month earlier to reach US$602.94 billion due to an increase in returns from the central bank’s portfolio management, the movement of other foreign currencies in the portfolio against the US dollar and the bank’s efforts to smooth the volatility of the New Taiwan dollar. Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民)said a rate cut cycle launched by the US Federal Reserve
Handset camera lens maker Largan Precision Co (大立光) on Sunday reported a 6.71 percent year-on-year decline in revenue for the third quarter, despite revenue last month hitting the highest level in 11 months. Third-quarter revenue was NT$17.68 billion (US$581.2 million), compared with NT$18.95 billion a year earlier, the company said in a statement. The figure was in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$17.9 billion, but missed the market consensus estimate of NT$18.97 billion. The third-quarter revenue was a 51.44 percent increase from NT$11.67 billion in the second quarter, as the quarter is usually the peak
Nvidia Corp’s major server production partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) reported 10.99 percent year-on-year growth in quarterly sales, signaling healthy demand for artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Revenue totaled NT$2.06 trillion (US$67.72 billion) in the last quarter, in line with analysts’ projections, a company statement said. On a quarterly basis, revenue was up 14.47 percent. Hon Hai’s businesses cover four primary product segments: cloud and networking, smart consumer electronics, computing, and components and other products. Last quarter, “cloud and networking products delivered strong growth, components and other products demonstrated significant growth, while smart consumer electronics and computing products slightly declined,” compared with the
The US government on Wednesday sanctioned more than two dozen companies in China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, including offshoots of a US chip firm, accusing the businesses of providing illicit support to Iran’s military or proxies. The US Department of Commerce included two subsidiaries of US-based chip distributor Arrow Electronics Inc (艾睿電子) on its so-called entity list published on the federal register for facilitating purchases by Iran’s proxies of US tech. Arrow spokesman John Hourigan said that the subsidiaries have been operating in full compliance with US export control regulations and his company is discussing with the US Bureau of
RSS