The US Federal Communications Commission has barred new foreign-made humanoid and quadruped robots, along with foreign-produced power inverters, from receiving the equipment authorizations they need to be imported, marketed or sold in the United States, the agency announced on July 28.
What the FCC added
The order creates a new category of robotics hardware — “advanced robotic devices,” defined as networked mobile machines such as humanoids and four-legged robots — on the FCC’s Covered List, the same national-security mechanism previously used to block Huawei and ZTE telecom equipment. Connected power inverters, which link solar panels, batteries and backup power systems to the grid, were added as a separate category.
According to the agency’s fact sheet, a White House-convened interagency security review found that foreign-produced devices in both categories could let outside actors “conduct surveillance, steal data, facilitate remote access, or launch cyberattacks,” posing what it called unacceptable risks under this regulation.
Who is affected
Chinese robotics maker Unitree, which builds humanoid and quadruped robots and has worked with Nvidia on AI models for machines, is among the companies most exposed by the robotics category. Power-inverter suppliers Huawei and Sungrow are named in connection with the second category. Both companies are based in China, which has become a major low-cost supplier of humanoid robots for warehouses, factories and customer service.
The restriction applies only to new equipment authorizations: robots and inverters already approved and sold in the US are unaffected. Manufacturers can still seek a case-by-case “Conditional Approval” from the Department of War, for robots, or the Department of Homeland Security, for inverters, if they can show a specific device does not pose a security risk.
China’s embassy in Washington rejected the move, urging the US to “stop smearing Chinese companies” and warning it would respond to protect its interests.
Part of a broader robotics race
The order arrives as US-based humanoid makers such as Tesla, Boston Dynamics and Figure compete with lower-cost Chinese rivals, and as investors keep funneling money into physical AI robotics startups. It also follows years of escalating US restrictions on Huawei’s access to advanced chips and equipment over the same national-security concerns tied to China’s tech sector.