Just now, Samsung Electronics announced its exit from the Chinese home appliance market. The official statement reads: “To respond to the rapidly changing market environment, after careful consideration, Samsung Electronics has decided to cease sales of all home appliances—including televisions and monitors—in mainland China.”

(Image source: Samsung China official website)

Samsung Electronics is fully withdrawing from the Chinese home appliance market, discontinuing all categories including televisions, monitors, large commercial displays, air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, washer-dryer combos, garment care systems, audio systems, projectors, vacuum cleaners, and air purifiers. This withdrawal excludes semiconductor (memory) operations, mobile devices (smartphones), and medical equipment businesses.

On the same day, Samsung Electronics’ market capitalization surpassed USD 1 trillion, making it the second Asian company—after TSMC—to join the “Trillion-Dollar Club.”

Viewing these two events side by side is especially intriguing.

Memory Chips Print Money; Home Appliances Are a Liability

The home appliance categories that once established Samsung’s premium image among Chinese consumers are all being withdrawn—a seemingly difficult decision. As early as 1992, Samsung Electronics entered the Chinese market, investing in manufacturing facilities in Huizhou, Tianjin, Dongguan, and other cities to launch local production. Thirty-four years later, Samsung’s exit from China’s home appliance market reflects a highly rational capital logic: when a company’s stock price and market cap are driven primarily by memory chip business, low-margin, fiercely competitive home appliances become little more than a financial liability on the balance sheet.

In 2026, Samsung—the world’s largest memory chip manufacturer—has one of the most profitable industries globally. High-bandwidth memory (HBM) remains in acute shortage, with NVIDIA’s GPU orders booked through 2027; Samsung has captured the lion’s share of this AI infrastructure boom.

Looking at the financials: In Q1 2026, Samsung Electronics reported sales of KRW 133 trillion (approximately RMB 606.48 billion), with operating profit surging 755% year-on-year. Chip operations alone contributed nearly 90% of total profits for the quarter, while the home appliance division remained unprofitable—posting a loss of roughly KRW 600 billion (RMB 2.79 billion) in the previous quarter. Although losses narrowed this quarter, the division continues to hover near the breakeven point.

The home appliance business consistently delivers single-digit to low-teens gross margins. Profit per television sold may not even reach a fraction of that generated by a single memory chip—and the latter requires no after-sales service teams, no channel下沉 (deep-channel distribution), and no price wars against domestic brands.

When Samsung holds the world’s most profitable semiconductor business, grinding away in the home appliance market is nothing short of “needlessly courting hardship.” Companies developing AI-powered appliances, large language models, or agent-based systems are all prospecting for gold—but selling shovels is the surest way to profit. While appliance makers go “all-in” on AI, they all must purchase Samsung’s memory chips, effectively paying Samsung an “AI infrastructure tax” in various forms.

Moreover, Samsung’s presence in China’s home appliance market has grown so faint that its withdrawal barely causes a ripple. Data shows Samsung’s offline TV market share in China stood at just 3.62% as of April this year, with refrigerator and washing machine shares plunging further to 0.41% and 0.38%, respectively.

Samsung’s current position closely resembles DuPont’s at the close of the 19th century. DuPont began with black powder, but when foundational chemical science underwent a paradigm shift, DuPont swiftly reinvented itself as a materials science company—supplying nylon, Teflon, and Kevlar, innovations that defined 20th-century industrial civilization. DuPont no longer manufactured bullets or artillery shells, yet every arms manufacturer depended on its raw materials.

Samsung follows the same logic: It no longer needs to engage in head-to-head competition with Chinese brands on end products like TVs or refrigerators. Instead, it supplies memory chips—or OLED panels—a far more sophisticated form of market control. You may think Samsung has exited the market, but in reality, it has moved deeper into the foundational layers of the supply chain.

Slow Product Iteration: Samsung Home Appliances Lost to Chinese Brands

Yet if greater profits were attainable, no company would refuse them. Samsung’s exit from China’s home appliance market ultimately stems from its inability to compete with Chinese brands.

At face value, Samsung’s pricing appears aloof and premium. For example, TCL launched mass-market Mini-LED TVs back in 2021—bringing a technology previously confined to high-end showrooms directly to mainstream consumers. Samsung didn’t begin large-scale Mini-LED rollout until 2022—and priced its models above RMB 15,000. While TCL and others democratized the technology, Samsung insisted, “Our Mini-LED TVs are worth RMB 15,000.”

(Image source: Samsung)

Crucially, Samsung’s component-level advantages have failed to translate into competitiveness in AI-powered end products.

At this year’s AWE, Haier unveiled its AI Eye 2.0 system, already mass-produced across refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners. Its AI refrigerator can identify ingredients, automatically detect storage conditions, and recommend recipes—truly embedding AI capabilities into users’ daily fridge-opening routines.

(Image source: LeiTech on-site coverage at AWE 2026)

Last year, Midea launched the world’s first DeepSeek air conditioner. At this year’s AWE, it showcased Agent-enabled appliances—devices capable of autonomous perception, decision-making, and action, akin to lobsters; also featured were home robots and whole-home air management systems. Meanwhile, the television segment—once the stronghold of Japanese and Korean manufacturers—is now seeing rapid market-share gains by Chinese brands: TCL has made Mini-LED mainstream, while Hisense’s RGB-MiniLED technology outperforms traditional solutions in color reproduction.

(Image source: LeiTech on-site coverage at AWE 2026)

Samsung’s concurrent demonstrations of AI appliances or MicroLED TVs remain at the demo stage. Mass-production MicroLED models such as the R95H and R85H remain entirely absent from the Chinese market—Samsung has fallen behind by more than one full product cycle.

Exiting the Chinese market won’t make Samsung’s home appliance business healthier. Home appliances are a scale-driven industry: without volume from China—the world’s largest single market—mass production costs for new technologies simply cannot be reduced, creating a vicious cycle. Shrinking market share discourages aggressive new-product launches; conservatism further erodes market share.

In the Human-Vehicle-Home 2.0 Era, Home Appliances Are No Longer a Standalone Business

More critically, the home appliance business is losing its independence in the AI era. At exhibitions such as AWE, CES, and IFA—and in announcements by major Chinese appliance manufacturers—the “Human-Vehicle-Home” concept is ubiquitous. Yet, as LeiTech reported from AWE 2026: the Human-Vehicle-Home 2.0 era has arrived.

It’s no longer about appliances merely connecting to the internet, nor simple coordination between smartphones, vehicles, and appliances. The future of whole-home intelligence lies in real-time collaboration among robots, vehicles, and appliances—enabling true whole-home intelligence and even fully autonomous household tasks. Appliances are no longer a standalone category; they serve as scene nodes within intelligent living ecosystems. Smartphones act as central controllers, vehicles as mobile extensions, robots as execution endpoints, and appliances as sensing and response platforms. Data flow, AI-driven synergy, and user habit integration across these four domains collectively form a genuine competitive moat.

(Image source: LeiTech on-site coverage at AWE 2026)

Within this narrative framework, appliance manufacturers must either own or deeply integrate automotive and robotics businesses to build a complete experience loop:

• Xiaomi owns automobiles, robots, and smartphones;

• Haier and Midea have heavily invested in robotics and collaborate with automotive brands via ecosystem partnerships;

• Huawei’s HarmonyOS ecosystem seamlessly integrates vehicles, appliances, and smartphones;

• Honor, OPPO, and vivo are all expanding into the appliance space;

• Even Dreame has unveiled its “Human-Vehicle-Home-Sky-Earth-Star” vision.

(Image source: Midea)

Samsung isn’t lacking AI capability or a smart home ecosystem. Globally, it operates the SmartThings platform, Galaxy smartphones, Harman automotive solutions, and even AI home robots like Ballie. Yet the problem is that this ecosystem has never taken root in China.

(Image source: Samsung)

Is Samsung incapable? Not exactly. As LeiTech sees it, this is fundamentally a matter of intent and organizational mechanism. Samsung is a highly centralized Korean conglomerate; its China division lacks sufficient product-definition authority. All localization efforts amount to “compliance adaptation” within global headquarters’ frameworks—not true “rebuilding for this market.” This stands in stark contrast to Haier, Midea, TCL, and Hisense, whose agile, glocal (global + local) R&D models enable deep market responsiveness. Samsung, by contrast, simply “translates” its global products for China—an increasingly costly approach in a market where iteration speeds accelerate and user demands grow ever more localized.

Thus, Samsung has never successfully stitched together the “Human-Vehicle-Home” landscape in China: Its smartphone business collapsed after the Note 7 incident, with long-term market share remaining below 1%. Though it hasn’t formally exited China, its presence is negligible. Its automotive business is virtually nonexistent, and its robotics initiatives remain underwhelming.

The world has changed: Appliance competition is no longer about standalone products—it’s about ecosystem entry points. With foundational infrastructure missing, Samsung’s withdrawal from the appliance market is effectively stepping away from the table.

When You Can’t Compete, Just Exit: The Chinese Home Appliance Market Is Now “Hard Mode”

A more pragmatic issue is the sheer intensity of competition in China’s home appliance market—so fierce it leaves many international brands gasping for air.

Established giants—Haier, Midea, Hisense, TCL, Changhong, and Skyworth—have built formidable moats encompassing technology, product excellence, omnichannel (online and offline) distribution, supply-chain mastery, and brand recognition. Meanwhile, new entrants continue flooding the market.

Yu Hao’s ambition to build a “USD 100-trillion market-cap company” may sound audacious, but Dreame’s foray into intelligent cleaning—starting precisely with home appliances—proves the strategy. Founded in 2017, Dreame employs a “premium functionality democratization” strategy: packing Dyson-level suction power and cleaning performance into far more affordable products. In the first three quarters of 2025, Dreame achieved RMB 12.07 billion in revenue—a 72.2% year-on-year increase. Its robot vacuum market share reached 12.4% globally, ranking first in 22 countries and regions. Even in Dyson’s home UK market and across the EU, Dreame’s floor washers lead in multiple countries. Functionally, Dreame matches Samsung; price-wise, it holds clear advantage; and in terms of iteration speed, it far outpaces Samsung.

During Dreame’s recent Silicon Valley new-product launch week, its entire home appliance portfolio—refrigerators, air conditioners, floor washers, televisions, and personal health devices—was unveiled in full. LeiTech’s on-site reporting underscored the growing global influence of Chinese brands.

(Image source: Dreame)

Let’s not even mention Xiaomi—the ultimate price disruptor—whose every product drags down industry profit levels. Even Pop Mart, a company seemingly unrelated to home appliances, now offers Labubu-branded custom refrigerators.

(Image source: JD.com)

It’s hard to imagine how Samsung could possibly compete with these relentless, rule-defying, and boundlessly imaginative rivals. The reality is simple: They’re just too tough to beat.

There is nothing new under the sun. Before 2016, Samsung smartphones held their own against Apple in China’s premium segment. After the Note 7 incident, however, Samsung’s China smartphone business plummeted in freefall. Everyone assumed China’s loss of Samsung phones would be a massive blow—but reality proved otherwise: Huawei, OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi, and Honor swiftly filled the void across the Android spectrum—from premium to mid- and entry-tier. China even fostered the HarmonyOS ecosystem, now standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Android and iOS, alongside the world’s most aggressive foldable-screen innovation wave.

The home appliance market will likely follow the same script: Without Samsung TVs in Chinese living rooms, TCL’s Mini-LED and Hisense’s Micro LED will continue pushing boundaries; Haier and Midea will extend the frontiers of AI-powered appliances even further.

Samsung’s Curtain Call Marks the Dawn of the “Chinese Era” in Global Home Appliances

Zooming out to the global stage, Samsung’s exit from China is merely the first step in its worldwide strategic retrenchment. Over recent years, my observations at international exhibitions like CES and IFA reveal a consistent trend: Samsung’s exhibition space is shrinking, advertising visibility is declining, and new-product buzz is fading—while Chinese brands’ booths grow larger and more assertive. Reportedly, Dreame has secured the largest exhibition hall at CES 2027—replacing Samsung’s former prime location. In 2026, Hisense secured sponsorship rights for the U.S.-Canada-Mexico World Cup; TCL’s international marketing budget rises annually, with sports and entertainment campaigns generating strong resonance. Dreame and Roborock are posting astonishingly steep growth curves overseas.

Prior to Samsung, the Japanese camp had already conceded. Sony and Panasonic offloaded their global TV businesses to TCL and Skyworth, respectively; Toshiba sold its home appliance business to Midea in 2016, with its TV division acquired by Hisense.

German brands Bosch and Siemens still maintain display cabinets on JD.com Mall and Suning—but their new-product cadence and pricing competitiveness have vanished entirely. These once-dominant global home appliance giants are crumbling in direct competition with Chinese brands—either clinging to narrow niches or exiting altogether. Samsung’s retreat is merely one wave in a decade-long migration of home appliance branding—a development that appears sudden but was, in fact, inevitable.

This isn’t self-aggrandizement—the trend is unmistakable: Chinese home appliance manufacturers are the protagonists of the AI era. The world’s strongest home appliance supply chain, the broadest AI deployment scenarios, and the most aggressive AI hardware-software integration ecosystem—when combined, these three forces are propelling Chinese brands beyond the “value-for-money” narrative into a new storyline: “redefining intelligent living.” Chinese brands are pioneering appliances equipped with “eyes” (vision), “brains” (AI), and “hands” (robotic arms), while simultaneously coordinating with vehicles and robots—setting “fully autonomous household tasks” as their next frontier.

Indeed, the light boat has already sailed past ten thousand mountains.