Chinese smartphone maker Honor on Wednesday denied rumors that CEO George Zhao has left the company.

This comes after rumors on Chinese social media platforms claimed that Zhao had left Honor and "took the entire Magic7 team with him."

The Magic7 series is Honor's flagship phone released at the end of October last year, which comes with the operating system powered by its first AI agent YOYO Agent and a large number of AI smart features.

Regarding the rumors of Zhao's departure, a source familiar with the matter said the news is false. Honor also responded on Wednesday morning, saying, "This news is untrue."

It is worth noting that Zhao had responded to the departure rumors at the end of April 2022, when it was said that Zhao stepped down as the general manager and director of Honor, and a number of directors and executives exited the company.

To this, Zhao responded to the rumors, posting on Weibo that he was still a director and CEO of Honor, and emphasizing that Honor's business was growing at a high rate both year-over-year and quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter of 2022.

Zhao joined Huawei in 1998 and served as president of Huawei's CDMA/WiMAX/TD product line and head of global wireless solutions sales.

In 2015, he took over as president of Huawei's Honor Business Unit and became the company's CEO after Honor was spun off from Huawei in November 2020.

And at the end of December last year, Honor announced that it had completed its shareholding reform and was ready to launch an IPO in due course.