It appears that OnePlus is set to pull the plug on and shutting down smartphone operations in global markets as the company focuses heavily on China, and this time, there’s more to it.
In a now-deleted Twitter post, Internet tipster Yogesh Brar shared that OnePlus will be shutting down in global markets, instead shifting focus to the entry- and mid-range market in India.
While speculation and rumors have been circulating online for several months, we can corroborate that a source familiar with the behind-the-scenes workings confirmed to 9to5Google that OnePlus will cease operations in certain regions, including vast portions of Europe, potentially as soon as April 2026. A firm timeline was not shared.
Selected staff had been informed of this decision ahead of time, with some receiving severance packages ahead of this shutdown. Compounding this, in recent hours, India CEO Robin Liu has been confirmed to have left the brand and returned to China, fueling yet more rumors of OnePlus shutting down operations.
Back in 2020, OnePlus shuttered and severely reduced major components of the firm’s European operations, jetisoning UK, German, and other European offices in the post-Nord launch period following Carl Pei’s exit. Since then, the company has built closer ties with its parent company, Oppo, with former OnePlus head Pete Lau moving into a Chief Product Officer role at Oppo.
Details are scant on why this decision has been made, but it is believed that Oppo is taking a greater focus internally. This has also apparently been one of the driving forces behind certain partnership shifts, such as the Hasselblad camera partnership that ended with the recent OnePlus 15 release but continues to be a component on Oppo flagship smartphones. It’s also not hard to see how the current market conditions could affect decision making – brands in China are expected to be hardest-hit by the ongoing memory/storage shortages and rapidly inflating costs, and all companies are looking to trim any excess.
Various OnePlus product launches are still in the pipeline, and many are unlikely to be made available outside China unless specifically stated. Just how this affects support for existing hardware, including various software update commitments and the community forums that have been heavily utilized by the brand, remains to be seen.
Realme recently moved under the Oppo umbrella as a sub-brand, which could signal the fate of OnePlus as a budget entity within the larger player. OnePlus has been a sub-brand of Oppo behind closed doors since 2021, but it’s possible things could change further following a shutdown of some of its global operations. After a previous report suggested something similar, OnePlus reiterated that there would be a “full guarantee of users’ after-sales support, software updates, and rights commitments.”
When asked for comment, OnePlus simply pointed to its existing statement surrounding Robin Liu’s departure, which we’ve embedded below – should we receive a further response we will update our coverage:
We thank Robin for his contributions to OnePlus India. He moves on to pursue his personal passions, and we wish him the very best for his future endeavours.
OnePlus India operations continue with local strategy and business continuity ensured.
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