Wi-Fi Giant TP-Link’s US Future Hinges on Its Claimed Split From China
- TP-Link Systems still has sizable China presence, records show
- Founder says he’s ‘chosen the US’ in company’s restructuring
TP-Link at the 2025 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Photographer: Davide Bonaldo/SOPA Images/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
The ubiquitous but often overlooked Wi-Fi router lies at the heart of one of Washington’s biggest national security dilemmas — and a rift between two brothers on opposite sides of the Pacific.
US investigators are probing the China ties of TP-Link Systems Inc., the new American incarnation of a consumer Wi-Fi behemoth, following its rapid growth and a spate of cyber attacks by Chinese state-sponsored actors targeting many router brands. The inquiry is testing whether TP-Link’s corporate makeover represents enough of a divorce from China to spare it from a ban in a crucial market.