U.S. Bans Chinese Humanoid Robots on National Security Grounds
The U.S. is banning Chinese humanoid robots. On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced measures targeting imports of new Chinese robots and power inverters, citing the potential for these devices to pose significant cybersecurity risks to the country.
The Trump administration stated that the ban would help protect U.S. AI development from national security threats and encourage domestic manufacturing of humanoid robots.
“These devices could create supply chain vulnerabilities capable of disrupting U.S. economic and national security, as well as pose a cybersecurity risk threatening U.S. critical infrastructure,” the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) noted. “The FCC will continue to fulfill its role in securing U.S. critical supply chains.”
This ban comes at a time when the Chinese robot manufacturer Unitree was seeing sales growth in the U.S., particularly among academic and research institutions.
What does the ban entail?
The ban covers new, foreign-made advanced robots—including humanoid and quadrupedal machines—and power inverters. The FCC indicated that these products had been added to its “Covered List,” a registry of goods and services deemed a risk to U.S. national security.
According to details accompanying the order, a license would be required for robots not manufactured in the U.S. that contain less than 65% U.S.-made components by value. Notably, this could affect nearly all robots, given that advanced chips are not primarily manufactured in the United States. In other words, although the U.S. has not directly banned Chinese robots, Chinese companies are unlikely to obtain licenses under the new measures. Reports indicate that the FCC is expected to exempt many non-Chinese suppliers from the restrictions, just as it has done with recent bans concerning foreign drones and routers.
In addition to robots, the U.S. is also considering banning Chinese “open-weight” AI models, such as Kimi K3 and GLM 5.2. These models are reportedly reaching the level of cutting-edge AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic, but at a lower cost. The United States has also accused Moonshot AI of distilling Anthropic’s models to train Kimi K3—a process that involves training a smaller model using the outputs of a larger one.
National security concerns regarding robots
The FCC expressed concern over the potential misuse of foreign-made robots. It noted that “robots collect data that could be exploited by malicious actors to surveil Americans, enhance the capabilities of foreign intelligence services, or remotely take control of the robots themselves.”
The Chinese Embassy in Washington responded to the ban with a statement urging the United States to “heed the objective and rational voices of the business communities in both countries” and to “stop smearing Chinese companies and threatening them with sanctions.”
To put this ban in context, it is worth noting that Chinese companies have made rapid strides in the market for humanoid robots designed for factories and homes, outpacing US competitors such as Tesla and Boston Dynamics. Chinese companies also lead the global market for humanoid robots. Unitree is estimated to be the largest manufacturer of such robots, holding a global market share of just under one-fifth of the total. The company is one of three Chinese firms dominating the sector and was recently added to the Pentagon’s list of companies allegedly backed by the Chinese military—a move seen as a potential precursor to harsher actions by the United States.
Unitree recently partnered with Nvidia to use the latter’s Blackwell chips in the “brains” of its robots. Nvidia had assured that data collected by these robots would remain in the United States. However, critics of Chinese technology fear that these robots could be used to spy on key US sectors by extracting and transmitting data to Beijing, or to interfere with critical functions. US lawmakers had previously advocated for banning Chinese robots.
China is also the world’s largest manufacturer of inverters, led by companies such as Sungrow Power Supply and Huawei; Chinese-made inverters are gaining market share in the West thanks to their lower prices.