Chinese electronics manufacturer Longcheer Technology is betting on artificial intelligence-powered devices in the US to drive growth, underscoring the importance of the country’s consumer market despite looming uncertainty over tariffs.

“North America definitely is our focus now because the competition in China is very strong,” Shawn Zhang, general manager of Longcheer’s US business department, told Nikkei Asia in a recent interview. He expects revenue from overseas markets, including the US, to continue to grow by double-digit percentage points each year.

A key focus for Longcheer is AI-powered smart glasses, which have gained traction in the US in recent years. Smart Analytics Global expects smart glasses shipments to expand 85% this year to 15 million units, driven by Google’s entry into the market. Longcheer is already a supplier of AI glasses for the Ray-Ban Meta brand.

“We invested in this category many years ago [so that] when the demand comes, we can catch up very quickly,” Zhang said. The company has two factories in China as well as one in Vietnam, which Zhang said serves the US market and was expanded last year. He also confirmed reports that the company is considering building a factory in Malaysia but declined to comment further.

Shanghai-based Longcheer, whose core business is designing and making smartphones for Samsung Electronics, Xiaomi, Oppo and others, joins a wave of contract manufacturers trying to boost growth by tapping fresh demand for AI-related hardware.

Huaqin Technology, another smartphone supplier, reported a jump in revenue last year thanks to strong demand for servers and other equipment used in AI data centers. Wingtech, another smartphone maker, has diversified into semiconductor manufacturing, although its losses widened last year after losing control of Dutch chip subsidiary Nexperia.

Longcheer’s revenue declined 19% year-on-year in the first quarter to RMB 7.56 billion (USD 1.1 billion), due to weak smartphone sales. The surge in the price of memory chips is also weighing on demand for phones, especially in the lower price range, according to another Longcheer executive. With memory prices seven or eight times higher than last year, the company is trying to enhance the performance of a phone without upgrading the memory specifications, the executive added.

Profitability is another challenge for contract manufacturers in China. Zhang said one reason for the intense competition is that thanks to its mature supply chain, it is easy for startups or companies in other industries to enter the smartphone manufacturing business. Consumers are also sensitive to prices and will switch to other brands that offer a steeper discount, he added.

“In the past more than 20 years, we were more focused on the smartphone business. But now AI has opened up great opportunities,” Longcheer founder and chairman Du Junhong told reporters during a tour of its headquarters earlier this month.

The appetite to capture US business comes despite looming uncertainty over tariffs. US President Donald Trump has agreed on a trade truce with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, suspending additional tariffs and other trade measures until November. But the US Trade Representative recently proposed tariffs on 60 economies, including China and Vietnam, for what it deems unfair trade practices based on forced labor.

Zhang said it is unlikely that major customers would change their supply chain strategies quickly, due to the high cost of doing so. Customers have so far not asked for Longcheer to build products in America. And even with higher tariffs, exporting from China could be more cost competitive if, for example, a customer needs to fly many engineers out to Vietnam.

“Vietnam, China … it works for now,” he said. “We will still try to invest more capacity in Asia.”

This article first appeared on Nikkei Asia. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with Nikkei.

Note: RMB figures are converted to USD at rates of RMB 6.79 = USD 1 based on estimates as of June 23, 2026, unless otherwise stated. USD conversions are presented for ease of reference and may not fully match prevailing exchange rates.