OnePlus is undergoing significant organizational changes in India, including the departure of India CEO Robin Liu, layoffs in its R&D team, and the closure of most of its standalone retail stores. The company has denied being dismantled but confirmed several of the reported changes.
The restructuring places OnePlus India under Realme CEO Sky Li, effectively ending its standalone market leadership. A retail network that expanded from roughly 30 to over 200 stores between 2020 and 2024 is now contracting to an online-first model, signaling cost pressure rather than strategic consolidation.
March 1, 2026. Android Headlines published a report this week, sourced from within the OnePlus organization, that the company is being “dismantled”: India R&D team laid off, employees given the choice to join a new merged team or leave, retail stores closing, management reporting lines being reorganized to route through Realme CEO Sky Li. OnePlus has denied the report. The denial addresses some specifics while leaving the structural picture intact: yes, Robin Liu has left, described as going “to pursue personal passions.” No, OnePlus is not exiting India. No, the stores are not all closing, just “consolidating.” Yes, there are organizational changes underway.
The Robin Liu departure
Robin Liu has been OnePlus’s India CEO since 2023, working to stabilize a market that was already in visible decline. His departure has reportedly been preceded by a restructuring in which he was asked to report to Realme CEO Sky Li rather than directly to OnePlus leadership. He declined and left. If that reporting is accurate, the organizational reality it describes is significant: OnePlus India is no longer a standalone market operation with its own P&L and leadership accountability. It is being managed as a function within the broader OPPO sub-brand portfolio.
For a brand that has always insisted on its independence and whose community loyalty is built on the perception of that independence, the reporting structure that prompted Liu’s departure is the most explicit signal yet of what OnePlus India has become within the OPPO organization. Whether the word “dismantled” is an accurate characterization of the process, the direction is clear.
The store closures
Between 2020 and 2024, OnePlus expanded its India retail presence from roughly 30 standalone stores to more than 200. OPPO’s $14 billion pledge in December 2022 funded part of this expansion. The “consolidation” announced this month is closing most of those standalone stores, shifting OnePlus to an online-first model in India. You do not close more than 150 retail locations if those locations are generating returns that justify their operating costs. The “consolidation” framing is accurate in that the remaining stores are being consolidated, but misleading in that it obscures how significant the contraction is relative to the expansion that preceded it. The community that watched OnePlus build out retail in 2022 as a confidence signal is now watching it contract in 2026 as what it actually is: a cost reduction under pressure.
Part of OnePlus: The Complete Story, my full history of OnePlus from founding to the Realme merger.