US startups fear it could leave them behind
\n Washington
\nThe Trump administration has opened a new front in its tech crackdown on China: robots.
\nThe Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday effectively shut the door on new foreign-made \u201cadvanced robotic devices,\u201d citing \u201cunacceptable risks\u201d to national security. The category includes humanoids, quadrupeds, and even some robot vacuums.
\nEven though previously authorized models are unaffected, and manufacturers can apply for conditional approval, the move will largely impact Chinese manufacturers like Unitree, which builds relatively inexpensive machines that American startups and university researchers widely use.
\nThe FCC\u2019s restrictions have split the US robotics industry. In interviews with Business Insider, American manufacturers welcomed protection from subsidized Chinese rivals, while startups and researchers warned that losing access to affordable hardware could leave the US further behind in a humanoid market China already dominates.
\nChinese companies accounted for roughly 90% of global humanoid shipments last year, according to Omdia.
\nAJ Meyer, CEO of Pickle Robot, which builds robots that unload boxes from trucks and shipping containers, said Chinese hardware is useful but carries real security risks. Still, he said the measure only benefits a small group of domestic manufacturers.
\n\u201cI would never put a Unitree robot into a customer site and hook it up to the internet as it comes out of the box,\u201d Meyer said.
\nHe said he would first modify its software and connectivity systems. Product labeling, security certification, and liability rules would address the risks better than a broad import ban, he argued.
\nChinese humanoids and quadrupeds are among the few platforms that smaller teams can afford. Quadrupeds retail for as little as $3,000, while entry-level humanoids start at around $6,000 before import fees and tariffs. Most American humanoids are still in development and not available off the shelf.
\nWhat American-built humanoids will eventually sell for remains unclear. Elon Musk has estimated that it could eventually cost Tesla between $20,000 and $25,000 to manufacture Optimus, the company\u2019s humanoid robot, once production scales. It\u2019s not clear how much Optimus will sell for.
\nVedant Nair, cofounder of Y Combinator-backed robotics software startup Miru, told Business Insider that the ban will hurt small startups and university researchers.
\n\u201cThis will severely hamper their ability to build useful products,\u201d Nair said. \u201cTheir development will be stymied by their inability to even access hardware.\u201d
\nChinese companies will continue selling robots elsewhere, Nair added, generating revenue and real-world data that could widen their hardware advantage.
\nBilal Zuberi, founder of the physical AI investing firm Red Glass Ventures, characterized the decision as shortsighted and protectionist.
\n\u201cWe should be incentivizing learning en masse from China about where the future of robotics and hardware is headed,\u201d Zuberi said.<\/p>\n
US robot makers welcome the protection
\nEvan Beard, CEO of New York-based robotic-arm maker Standard Bots, valued at $1 billion, has long pushed Washington to restrict Chinese robots. In congressional testimony last year, he called for an import ban or tariffs to counter Chinese government subsidies. Last month, he met with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to discuss competition from China.
\n\u201cThis is one of the largest and most important US trade actions in history,\u201d Beard told Business Insider. \u201cIt\u2019s a message that the US needs to be a leader and an owner of these core foundational technologies. It\u2019s too important to outsource.\u201d
\nAgility Robotics CEO Peggy Johnson has also backed restrictions. The startup, which plans to go public at a $2.5 billion valuation, assembles humanoids in Oregon to perform repetitive tasks such as moving heavy boxes and loading conveyor belts.
\nIn a statement, Agility said the ban is an important step toward addressing national and economic security risks posed by foreign-made robots \u201cbefore they become deeply embedded across an entire industry, much like what happened in the drone market.\u201d Chinese manufacturers came to dominate the US commercial drone market before Washington restricted new foreign-made models over national security concerns last year.
\nThis decision rewards companies that have invested in building trusted domestic supply chains from the ground up,\u201d the company said.
\nLast year, researchers found an undocumented backdoor in Unitree\u2019s Go1 robot dog that could let outsiders control it and access its camera.
\nAnother analysis found that Unitree robots used at MIT, Princeton, and Carnegie Mellon may have been exposed to the same flaw. The FCC cited similar risks in its national security determination.
\n\u201cAdvanced robotic devices collect data that could be leveraged by malign actors to surveil Americans, enhance the capabilities of foreign intelligence services, or to remotely commandeer the robots,\u201d officials wrote.
\n\u201cWe are now living in a world where frontier AI capabilities are being seen as national assets,\u201d Omdia analyst Lian Jye Su told Business Insider. The broader goal, he said, is \u201crobotic sovereignty\u201d \u2014 ensuring countries control the robots they depend on rather than relying on a geopolitical rival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US startups fear it could leave them behind Washington The Trump administration has opened a new front in its tech crackdown on China: robots. The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday effectively shut the door on new foreign-made \u201cadvanced robotic devices,\u201d citing \u201cunacceptable risks\u201d to national security. The category includes humanoids, quadrupeds, and even some robot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-559671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business"],"yoast_head":"\n