More Singapore customers buy Dyson’s AI-powered vacuum cleaners, pushing operating profit past $1b

SINGAPORE - A robot vacuum glides across the floor, pauses briefly over a dinner mess, then returns to the same spot. It switches from suction to wet scrubbing mode and goes over the stain again until it disappears.

Dyson’s Spot+Scrub AI robot’s ability to spot, assess and re-clean – rather than just follow a preset path like many other robovacs in the market – reflects how a new generation of “thinking” machines is reshaping the company’s product line and, increasingly, its financial performance.

Its operating profit rose to £600 million (S$1 billion) in 2025, up 15 per cent from 2024, as demand for its latest devices gathered pace in fast-growing markets like Singapore, said the British-founded, Singapore-headquartered engineering firm.

Dyson said it launched 13 new products in 2025 – the most in a single year – and filed 252 patents for new innovations, helping propel revenue to £6.13 billion, which is down 6.7 per cent from 2024.

During the year, the company invested more than £400 million in research and development (R&D), including in AI and machine learning, with the aim of making cleaning as hassle-free as possible for busy families.

In a March 27 statement, its founder James Dyson said the company’s R&D spending has led to new products such as the Spot+Scrub AI robot vacuum, which was launched in October 2025, as well as the Dyson PencilVac, the world’s slimmest vacuum at 38mm in diameter.

Dyson also saw record global sales of its Airwrap hairstyling device, with Singapore consumers contributing strongly to demand, it said without providing details.

Singapore is at the heart of these innovations.

Dyson runs its advanced manufacturing facility at the St James Power Station at HarbourFront, where it employs about 2,000 people, half of whom are engineers who are central to developing key components used in Dyson’s machines.

Since the company opened its first facility in Singapore in 2007, more than 100 million digital motors have been produced in the Republic, for example. Some of these motors spin at up to 140,000 revolutions per minute, which Dyson claims is faster than a Formula 1 car engine.

They enable strong suction in compact designs, allowing newer devices to combine vacuuming, washing and sensing in a single unit.

The engineers have also played a central role in building newer artificial intelligence-driven machines like the Dyson Spot+Scrub AI robot, which uses cameras, sensors and machine learning to identify dirt, adapt its cleaning method and verify if a surface has been properly cleaned.

AI and machine learning will continue to be a central focus for Dyson in Singapore, the spokesperson said.

Even so, Dyson’s expansion has not been without challenges.

The company said it was “hit hard” by US tariffs in 2025, as well as currency movements and weak consumer sentiment in key markets such as the US, Germany and China.

Despite this, Dyson chief executive Hanno Kirner noted that the company still reported higher earnings and operating profit for the year, with higher demand coming from fast-growing markets like Turkey, where sales volumes increased by a fifth, South Korea, India, Poland, Mexico, Britain as well as Singapore and South-east Asia.

He added that Dyson has plans to introduce more products in 2026 across a wider range of price points to reach more customers.

So far in 2026, Dyson has launched new products including the PencilWash wet floor cleaner, a slim device that can remove both wet spills and dry debris from hard floors and reach under low furniture.

It has also introduced its first scalp treatment, the Amino leave-in product, which is designed to reduce hair loss, oil and flaking.