Google plans to stop manufacturing Pixel smartphones, smartwatches and wireless earbuds in China from 2027, shifting production to Vietnam and India as the US technology giant accelerates efforts to reduce its exposure to Chinese manufacturing, Nikkei Asia reported on Tuesday.

Google has told suppliers that it intends to have all Pixel devices manufactured outside China starting next year, according to the Nikkei report. If the plan is completed, Google would become the second major global smartphone brand after Samsung Electronics to move smartphone production entirely out of China.

The planned shift comes as years of tensions between Washington and Beijing have pushed technology companies to diversify their supply chains. But Google’s ability to contemplate a complete exit from China also reflects something that has changed within its own manufacturing network: Vietnam has demonstrated that it can handle some of the most complicated parts of making Pixel smartphones.

Why Google is moving out of China

Google has been expanding manufacturing capacity in Vietnam and India in recent years to reduce its dependence on China, even as a significant share of Pixel production has remained there.

The company this year successfully developed and manufactured its high-end Pixel smartphones in Vietnam, a move that required investment in testing equipment and tooling as well as the verification and fine-tuning of production processes, according to Nikkei Asia.

That appears to have been an important test.

Smartphones are considerably more complex to manufacture than products such as smartwatches and wireless earbuds. The successful production of high-end Pixel phones in Vietnam has given Google greater confidence that it can establish production processes for its other devices outside China as well, Nikkei reported.

In other words, Google is no longer simply moving final assembly from one country to another. It is building the manufacturing capabilities needed to take sophisticated Pixel products into mass production outside China.

Vietnam emerges as a key Pixel hub

Vietnam is expected to play a particularly important role in the shift.

Nikkei Asia had reported earlier this year that Google was moving development and manufacturing work for new high-end Pixel models to Vietnam.

Such new-product development work is important because manufacturers have to establish production lines, testing processes and tooling before a device can be manufactured at scale.

Google’s success in doing this for high-end Pixel phones has strengthened its confidence that the wider Pixel manufacturing ecosystem can be moved out of China by 2027, according to the latest Nikkei report.

Vietnam also already has a substantial smartphone supply chain, built partly around Samsung Electronics’ large manufacturing presence in the country. That gives Google access to an established ecosystem of suppliers and electronics-manufacturing expertise.

Why leaving China may be easier for Google than Apple

Google also faces fewer commercial constraints in leaving China than some of its biggest technology rivals.

Unlike Apple, Google does not officially sell Pixel smartphones in China, meaning it has less reason to retain manufacturing there to support access to the Chinese consumer market, a source told Nikkei Asia. Google’s smartphone volumes are also much smaller than Apple’s, making the manufacturing network less difficult to relocate.

That combination could allow Google to move more aggressively than Apple, which has expanded iPhone manufacturing in India but continues to maintain substantial production in China.

India gets a bigger role

India is expected to be the other major beneficiary of Google’s supply-chain diversification.

Google has been building Pixel manufacturing capacity in the country alongside Vietnam as it reduces its dependence on China. Under the reported plan, the two countries would become the main alternatives as Pixel phones, watches and earbuds move out of Chinese factories.

The shift is part of a broader trend among global electronics companies to spread manufacturing across multiple countries rather than remain heavily dependent on China.

For Google, however, the planned move goes further. Rather than merely adding alternative manufacturing locations while retaining China as a major production base, the company is aiming to remove China from Pixel manufacturing altogether.

Google wants to make more Pixels, not fewer

The planned exit also isn’t happening because Google is retreating from the smartphone business.

Google has told suppliers that it plans to increase Pixel smartphone shipments by 8% to 10% in 2026 from about 12 million units last year, according to Nikkei Asia.

That means Google is attempting to expand its Pixel business while simultaneously shifting the manufacturing base supporting it.

The company is also dealing with rising memory-chip costs and has reportedly bundled memory orders for its smartphones with purchases for its much larger cloud-computing business, strengthening its bargaining position with suppliers including Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix.

If Google completes the shift in 2027, it would mark the culmination of a supply-chain diversification effort years in the making.

US-China tensions provided the incentive to reduce dependence on Chinese factories. But the development of alternative manufacturing ecosystems in Vietnam and India — and Google’s success in producing its most sophisticated phones outside China — appears to have provided the means to go much further.

What began as a China+1 strategy could, for Google’s Pixel business, effectively become China+0.