Google to Reportedly End Pixel Phones, Watches and Earbuds Manufacturing in China from 2027; Might Expand Production in India, Vietnam

Google unveiled its Pixel 11 series and Pixel Watch 5 at its Made By Google event earlier this month. Now, a new report claims that the tech giant is preparing to shift its manufacturing strategy. Starting next year, Google could stop manufacturing Pixel devices in China; instead, the company is likely to expand its manufacturing operations in other markets. Google is also said to be gearing up to increase its Pixel phone shipments by up to 10 percent from last year's total of around 12 million units. 

Google to Move All Pixel Production Out of China

As reported by Nikkei Asia, Google has informed its suppliers that it plans to move the production of all Pixel smartphones, smartwatches and wireless earbuds outside China starting next year amid ongoing Washington-Beijing tensions. The report notes that Google has been aggressively increasing production capacity in Vietnam and India in recent years to lower its dependency on China. China remains a major manufacturing hub for Google's hardware.

The report, citing unknown sources with knowledge of the matter, states that the successful development and production of flagship Pixel phones in Vietnam gave Google the confidence to proceed with the plan to move Pixel production out of China. The company has been expanding manufacturing in India and Vietnam.

"Compared with Apple, Google has no burden [to leave China] as it does not sell Pixel phones in the Chinese market," the report cites one of the people with knowledge of the plan. "The progress in Vietnam is smooth, as Samsung has built a smartphone supply chain ecosystem there that Google could also access."

If this report is true, this move could make Google the second major smartphone brand after Samsung to shift phone production away from China. The report claims that Google "could grab some share from Apple in the US, Japan and Europe when Apple raises prices for iPhones."

Further, despite surging memory chip prices, Google plans to increase Pixel shipments by 8 percent to 10 percent this year, up from around 12 million units last year. Google reportedly has high hopes for the new Pixel series as more customers will choose it for Gemini AI applications. The company is reportedly bundling chip orders for its cloud-computing business with those of smartphones to negotiate with Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix to avail better prices. 

Google launched the Pixel 11 series earlier this month with a starting price tag of Rs. 89,999 in India. The lineup runs on the Tensor G6 chipset. It includes the Titan M3 security coprocessor and has an IP68-rated build. The brand has also launched the Pixel Watch 5 at the event alongside the Google Pixel Tag. Google has also released the Pixel Buds Pro 2 in a new colour option.