(JW Insights) Jul 24 -- Several key members of Zeku, Oppo’s chip arm that disbanded two months ago, have recently joined the Chinese autonomous driving company Momenta, Pandaily reported on July 21.

Among them are COO Li Zonglin, director of Software Department Jia Mingjun, senior director Yu Guojun and nearly ten middle-level managers under him. In addition, Momenta is also in contact with Sun Chengkun, the former head of the Zeku NPU Chip Center.

The executives at ZEKU enjoy generous remuneration package, with informed sources stating that their annual salaries range from RMB2 million to RMB6 million ($280,000 to $840,000).

The sources also said that after several senior executives from ZEKU joined Momenta, they will be led by Li Zonglin or establish a new department to focus on the research and development of autonomous driving chips.

Currently, NVIDIA has already occupied a considerable share of the high-end automotive AI chip market, while Horizon Robotics is also becoming the preferred company for domestic alternatives. It appears to be quite challenging for second and third-tier chip players to break through.

Building a talented team is just the first step in Momenta’s transformation. The subsequent process of understanding market demands, conducting chip design, packaging, production and delivery, refining tool-chains, and establishing an ecosystem will be a much longer journey.

The introduction of talent and chip manufacturing both have higher requirements for funding. It is said that Momenta is currently in contact with multiple investment institutions, including the Hefei government in China, said the Pandaily report.

(Yuan XY/Gao J)