A profile of TP-Link, whose share of the US consumer router market grew from 10% to 60%+ between 2019 and 2025, as it seeks to rebut national security concerns
When Jeffrey Chao was studying for his master's in computer science in the early 1990s, he would sometimes spend so many hours …
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TP-Link Now Owns 60%+ of the US Router Market. Washington Is Nervous.
TP-Link surged from 10% to over 60% US consumer router market share in six years, now facing national security scrutiny.
TP-Link's dominance of American home networking happened fast. The Chinese-founded router maker controlled just 10% of the US consumer router market in 2019. By 2025, that number exploded past 60%.
Now the company is playing defense. A new profile from The Wire China traces TP-Link's meteoric rise and its efforts to push back against growing national security concerns in Washington. The company's roots trace back to co-founder Jeffrey Chao, who studied computer science in the early 1990s before building what became a networking giant.
The trajectory is staggering. No other consumer router brand has grabbed market share at this pace. But that success has painted a target on TP-Link's back, with scrutiny over potential risks tied to Chinese-linked networking hardware reaching American homes at massive scale.
TP-Link is now actively working to counter the security narrative. Whether that's enough remains to be seen.