As prices continue to soar with no end in sight, the phone industry is bracing for a new round of upheaval.

In the first half of the year, Meizu bowed out; in the second half, several domestic phone brands' sub-brands accelerated consolidation and streamlined their product lines to cushion rising costs.

Today, rumors circulated online that ZTE is packaging and selling its phone business.

The rumor claims that ZTE Communications is in talks with a major internet company to package its consumer-facing phone business, with ZTE, the internet company, and Shanghai state capital jointly establishing a joint venture.

The report says the internet company plans to contribute about 8 billion yuan, while ZTE hopes to proceed based on a business valuation of about 40 billion yuan.

The final valuation, shareholding ratios, and transaction method are still in the negotiation stage.

The rumor cites employees saying the cooperation began exploratory talks in April this year, opened negotiations in July, and by September had settled on the cooperation model...

What is being packaged is ZTE's consumer-facing phone business, covering both domestic and overseas markets.

After the rumor was reported by media outlets such as Leiphone, it quickly sparked heated discussion. Some bloggers said: It proves that the phone industry has entered a winter...

"Is it expensive? ZTE plans to set up a joint venture to sell its phone business, valued at about 40 billion; probably only ByteDance has the money to buy it"

Regarding the rumor, ZTE responded multiple times in the evening. When asked for verification by Observer Network and National Business Daily, ZTE Communications simply replied "untrue."

To media outlets such as Securities Times, the company further stated that "the content of the relevant reports is seriously inconsistent with the facts" and said it will reserve the right to pursue legal liability.

According to The Paper, ZTE stated that the company will reserve the right to pursue legal liability for the false report and its dissemination.

Although ZTE actively refuted the rumor, in discussions of the related hot topic, many netizens said the official response did not explain item by item whether the transaction itself, the valuation, or the buyer information was untrue, and only gave the above unified statement.

It is worth noting that ZTE had previously established a subsidiary and transferred relevant personnel relations into it, namely Shanghai Shenqi Jiyuan Intelligent Terminal Co., Ltd., newly established in April 2025, with Wang Xiyu as chairman and Ni Fei as director, currently 100% controlled by ZTE Communications.

At present, ZTE's phone business mainly operates through the dual brands Nubia and RedMagic, with Ni Fei as president of the terminal business unit.

IDC data shows that in the third quarter of 2026, ZTE's domestic phone shipments ranked tenth, down 52.0% year-on-year, with a market share of about 0.3%.

However, in the first half of 2026, ZTE's consumer business revenue was 18.629 billion yuan, up 8.09% year-on-year, mainly driven by revenue growth in home terminals, phones, and mobile internet products.

In the AI direction, ZTE Nubia is ahead of the industry. At the end of 2025, it jointly launched the Nubia M153 technical preview version with Doubao, and in September 2026 the Nubia NaviX Ultra was officially released, equipped with the consumer version of the Doubao phone assistant.

However, the Doubao phone is currently boycotted by a large number of apps. Data shows that the Doubao phone assistant's "list of apps refusing operation" continues to expand to 166, imposing restrictions on the actual experience of AI phones.

Combined with the cost pressure brought by rising memory chip prices, the profit space of the phone business is further under pressure.

So whether this rumor will come true, we will continue to follow.

END