Google to produce smartphone in Vietnam: Taiwanese media

Google, which has a majority of Pixel 6 smartphones made in China, would shift a small portion of production to Vietnam for training purposes, DigiTimes said.

The move is to "to avoid the risks from the ongoing U.S.-China trade tensions and China's Covid-19 lockdowns."

Two of Google's manufacturing partners, Foxconn's FIH and Compal Electronics, have factories in Vietnam and can take on orders at any time, it added.

Google has been planning to expand production to Vietnam for years.

In 2019 Nikkei Asia reported that it had started converting an old Nokia factory in the northern province of Bac Ninh to handle production of Pixel phones.

A year later images of a Google Pixel 4a made in a plant in the northern Vinh Phuc Province leaked and took Vietnamese social media by storm.

China's lockdown has also driven other smartphone manufacturers to Vietnam.

In June, BYD, a leading iPad assembler, helped Apple build production lines in Vietnam and could soon start to produce a small number of the tablets there, Nikkei Asia reported.

In late May China's Xiaomi announced the delivery of its first batch of made-in-Vietnam smartphones.