Google has apparently cracked the code on smartphone manufacturing in Vietnam, and now it’s using that confidence to go all in. According to Engadget, Google has told its suppliers that every Pixel device, including phones, watches, and earbuds, will be made outside of China starting in 2027. That’s a significant move, and it’s been a long time coming.
Right now, most of Google’s Pixel production still happens in China, even though the company has been slowly building up capacity in Vietnam and India for a few years. The shift started gaining real momentum earlier this year when Nikkei Asia reported that Google would manufacture its Pixel 11 lineup in Vietnam. That wasn’t a simple flip of a switch. Google had to invest in testing equipment and tooling machines, verify production processes, and basically build the operation from scratch. The fact that it worked for a flagship smartphone gave Google the push it needed to move its simpler products, like earbuds and smartwatches, out of China too.
One big advantage Google has here is that it doesn’t officially sell Pixel phones in China. That makes the exit cleaner than what Apple is dealing with. Apple has a massive Chinese customer base and a deeply embedded supply chain that’s almost impossible to untangle quickly. Google’s Pixel sales are still relatively modest globally, around 12 million units shipped in 2025, so the production footprint is smaller and easier to relocate. Google can also tap into the smartphone supply chain ecosystem that Samsung already built in Vietnam, which saves serious time and money.
This is all happening against a backdrop of rising trade tensions and tariff pressure between the US and China. Companies across the tech industry are scrambling to reduce their dependence on Chinese manufacturing, and Google is clearly reading the same memo. Moving production to Vietnam and India is a bet on long-term stability over short-term convenience.
There’s a business growth angle here too. Google reportedly wants to increase Pixel shipments by 8 to 10 percent this year, pushing the AI-powered features of Gemini as a reason to buy in. To manage rising memory chip costs, the company is bundling its phone chip orders together with purchases for its cloud computing operations. Smart cost control for a hardware business that’s still finding its footing.
If Google pulls this off cleanly, it’s a real story about how a company with a relatively small hardware operation can move faster than the giants. The Pixel line has always been a slow burn. But 2027 could be the year it starts operating on a very different level.