This spring, the United States banned foreign-made consumer routers unless makers convinced the government they were not a national security threat and submitted a detailed, time-bound plan to establish or expand US manufacturing. Asus received an exemption on September 9, just in time for its first early Wi-Fi 8 routers, but the company has not publicly announced any plan to bring manufacturing to the US.
Asus initially said it had submitted "the required plan" to the FCC and was working with trusted manufacturing partners, but it would not clarify whether that meant building equipment in the US or simply selling equipment for the US market. According to The Verge, the company did not answer repeated requests for clarification over 12 days.
The FCC's exemption process does not ask companies about security, and it granted Asus a blanket exemption through March 2028. Netgear received a similar exemption in April. Both companies say they manufacture in allied countries rather than China, and Asus now markets itself as a "Trusted Networking Equipment Brand" — a term that appears only on Asus's own claims, not in federal designations.