Who Owns Netgear?

Netgear is an American communication networking company headquartered in San Jose, California. It's best known for manufacturing Wi-Fi routers, and in fact, it regularly ranks as one of the best Wi-Fi router brands based on user reviews. However, many of the other well-known router brands operating in America, such as Linksys and Belkin, are owned by foreign entities headquartered in East Asian countries like Taiwan.

Netgear is a publicly traded American company listed on the Nasdaq exchange, meaning that it does not have a single owner. In order to have a "parent company," another entity must own at least 51% of the publicly traded shares. At the time of writing, Netgear's biggest shareholders are BlackRock at 11.7% and Brandes Investment Partners at 10.2%, both of which are American companies themselves. Despite the fact that many consumer routers rely on chips and other components sourced from China, Netgear is neither Chinese nor is it foreign-owned whatsoever.

Even though Netgear is an American company with no foreign owners, it does manufacture consumer router products in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand. This is an understandable concern for American consumers because the Federal Communications Commission banned routers made in foreign countries starting back in March 2026. However, it was later announced that Netgear is exempted from the FCC router ban because the company qualified for conditional approval. Individualized assessments determined that Netgear's consumer routers did not pose "unacceptable risks" to national security.

Netgear asserts that it has "no reason to believe" that the FCC will change its conditional approval status. Due to the ban, most foreign routers have a software expiration date, but this currently doesn't apply to Netgear. It's difficult to buy an American-made router in 2026, so the best course of action may be to choose a brand like Netgear that seems to be committed to maintaining its conditional approval status.

Of course, it doesn't matter who owns Netgear if you can find a different brand that suits your needs even better. There are plenty of underrated router brands that can compete with Netgear, several of which are from companies that do not explicitly appear on the FCC's covered list of services determined to pose an "unacceptable risk," though not all of them are American-owned companies. The FCC continues to grant conditional approval to companies that apply and qualify, though it's worth noting that this approval status is not necessarily permanent. Even Netgear will need to seek reapproval when its current status expires on October 1, 2027, so it's important to stay informed no matter what brand you buy your router from.