iRobot Files for Bankruptcy Because Chinese Robots Clean Better, Faster, Subsidized
KEY POINTS
- •iRobot, creator of the Roomba robotic vacuum, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 14, 2025, signaling a major business shake-up.
- •Founder Colin Angle cited relentless competition from Chinese companies like Roborock, boosted by China’s 17.5% subsidies for robot manufacturers.
- •The company’s failed $1.4 billion acquisition by Amazon was blocked after a prolonged antitrust review, leading to acquisition by contract maker Picea Robotics.
In a plot twist nobody vacuumed for, iRobot, the brainchild of MIT roboticists Colin Angle, Helen Greiner, and Rodney Brooks, who launched Roomba in 2002 and hit their revenue peak at $1.56 billion in 2021, crashed hard and declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 14, 2025. The robo-vacuum pioneer blamed China’s ‘fast followers’ like Roborock — turbocharged with government subsidies covering about 17.5% of their equipment costs — for erasing its sparkle. Angle admitted Roomba’s mopping robot Scuba was a soggy flop and lamented a failed $1.4 billion Amazon acquisition held hostage by overcautious antitrust folks who dragged things out for a year and a half. The eventual Chinese buyer? Their own contract manufacturer, Picea Robotics, a company probably polishing robotic brooms as we speak.
Share the Story
When your $1.56B robot vacuum empire gets outcleaned by Chinese state-subsidized copycats, maybe it’s time to admit Scuba the mopping robot wasn’t your brightest invention.
iRobot’s bankruptcy: Poetic justice for a company that ‘got wet mopping wrong’ while Chinese competitors got taxpayer-funded magic wands.
Nothing says ‘innovation’ like a $1.4 billion Amazon deal stalemated for 18 months by regulators, then folding to a Chinese broom company.
Source: Businessinsider | Published: 12/21/2025 | Author: Lakshmi Varanasi
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