TP-Link is one of the most popular router manufacturers in the US, but the company is facing a possible ban due to safety issues on its ties with China. In a December report of the Wall Street Journal, it was revealed that the US departments of US trade, defense and justice are being investigated into TP link, although no evidence of deliberate offense has yet emerged.

“We are an American company,” TP-Link president Jeff Barney told Wired: “We have no connection to TP-Link Tech, which focuses on mainland China, and we can prove our separate. ‘

The investigation was sparked by a letter from John Moolenaar, a Republican for Michigan, and Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat of Illinois. Both are in the House Select Committee for the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. They set out the concern that Chinese state -sponsored hackers could possibly easier in jeopardy information by Chinese intelligence officers.

Photo: Simon Hill

TP-Link was founded in China in 1996 by two brothers, and TP-Link USA was founded in 2008. It was only in 2022 that the Chinese and American wings began to divide. The process of moving the 170 subsidiaries and all the related ownership from Hong Kong and to the United States was delayed by the pandemic, says Barney, but it was sold and restructured by 2024.

TP-Link now has headquarters in California and Singapore and manufactured in Vietnam. According to Barney, it was examined, designed, developed and manufactured anything but chips in the home. “Our entities in China are directly controlled by our employees, our employees who have been cultivated by us, who are secured by us in our own facilities.” He also says TP-Link has shared documentation with investigators and that the factory in Vietnam was audited by US retail partners such as Walmart, Best Buy and Costco.

“Everyone has a Nexus in China,” says Barney. He claims that US rival Netgear Chinese ODMs (original manufacturers of devices) use to build its products and that even Apple rely on manufacturing in China. Netgear says his routers are manufactured in Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand, not China.

Competition problems

The WSJ report suggests that TP-Link has a leading share of 64.9 percent of the US router market, but TP-Link disputes it. The company claims that its share has reached about 20 percent over the past few years, but in 2024 jumped into a 36.5 percent unit share and a 30.7 percent share in 2024. But even the lower estimate of TP-Link shows a company in the rise. This dominance is driven by aggressive low prices and a relative early rollout of Wi-Fi 7-Routers, which is considered by some as a joint effort to flood the US market.

“Technology should not be excessive,” says Barney. “We are trying to democratize these products.”

However, the wide product range raises questions, with many people wondering how TP-Link can benefit from routers sold at such low prices compared to the competition. Former CNET judge Dong NGO is investigating this point on the in-depth router review website, Dong knows.