What happens to Roombas now that the company has declared bankruptcy?

Roomba shaper IRobot filed for bankruptcy and volition spell backstage aft being acquired by its Chinese supplier Picea Robotics.

Founded 35 years ago, the Massachusetts institution pioneered the improvement of location vacuum robots and grew to go 1 of the astir recognizable American user brands.

Over the years, it mislaid crushed to Chinese competitors with less-expensive products. This year, the institution was clobbered by President Trump’s tariffs. At its highest during the pandemic, IRobot was valued astatine $3 billion.

The bankruptcy filing, which happened connected Sunday, has raised fearfulness among Roomba users who are disquieted astir “bricking,” which is erstwhile a instrumentality stops moving oregon is rendered useless owed to a deficiency of bundle updates.

IRobot has tried assuaging the fears, saying that it volition proceed operations with nary anticipated disruption to its app functionality, lawsuit programs oregon merchandise support.

The bulk of IRobot products sold successful the U.S. are manufactured successful Vietnam, which was deed with a 46% tariff, eroding profits and competitiveness of the company. The tariffs accrued IRobot’s costs by $23 cardinal successful 2025, according to its tribunal filings.

In 2024, IRobot’s gross stood astatine $681 million, astir 24% little than the erstwhile year. The institution owed hundreds of millions successful indebtedness and semipermanent loans. Once the court-supervised transaction is complete, IRobot volition go a backstage institution owned by declaration shaper Picea Robotics.

Today, astir 70% of the planetary astute vacuum robot marketplace is dominated by Chinese brands, according to IDC, with Roborock and Ecovacs starring the charge.

The merchantability of a celebrated household marque to a Chinese rival has prompted complaints from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and politicians, citing the lawsuit arsenic a nonaccomplishment of antitrust policy.

Amazon primitively planned to get IRobot for $1.4 billion, but successful aboriginal 2024, it terminated the merger aft scrutiny from European regulators, supported by then-Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan. IRobot ne'er recovered from that.

The cardinal interest for the merger was that Amazon could unduly favour IRobot products successful its marketplace, according to Joseph Coniglio, manager of antitrust and innovation astatine the deliberation vessel Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

Buying IRobot could person expanded Amazon’s portfolio of location devices, including Ring and Alexa, helium said, bolstering American contention successful the robot vacuum market.

“Blocking this woody was a strategical error,” said Dirk Auer, manager of contention argumentation astatine the International Center for Law & Economics. “The effect is that we person handed an casual triumph to Chinese rivals. IRobot was the lone important Western subordinate near successful this space. By denying them the resources needed to compete, regulators person near American consumers with less alternatives to Chinese dominance.”

“While IRobot has go a peripheral subordinate recently, Amazon had the circumstantial capableness to reverse those fortunes — specifically by integrating IRobot into its palmy ecosystem of location devices,” Auer said. “The champion mode to grip planetary contention is to guarantee U.S. firms are escaped to merge, standard and innovate, alternatively than trying to thwart Chinese firms via regulation. We should beryllium enabling our companies to compete, not restricting their quality to find a way forward.”