The U.S. is treating humanoid robots less like futuristic gadgets and more like networked national-security hardware. A new import crackdown aimed at China could also reshape the Bay Area’s race to build its own robot workforce.
In a Federal Communications Commission notice, the agency added advanced robotic devices, including mobile humanoids and quadrupeds, and connected power inverters produced in foreign countries to its Covered List. The equipment is being treated as an unacceptable national security or cybersecurity risk, although some foreign manufacturers may still seek conditional approval, according to Axios.
China Has The Robots The U.S. Wants To Keep Out
The restriction lands where China’s advantage is hard to miss. The Associated Press reports that China held roughly 85% of the global humanoid-robot market in 2025, when about 15,000 humanoid robots shipped worldwide.
Unitree and Agibot, two Chinese manufacturers, each shipped more than 5,000 robots last year, while U.S. companies Tesla and Figure AI shipped a few hundred or fewer, based on Omdia data cited by AP. “Protectionism does not make the U.S. more competitive,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said, as the Spectrum News report noted the move could add another flashpoint ahead of a planned September meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
For Bay Area readers, the order lands in the middle of a homegrown robotics push. Hoodline previously reported that Tesla was expanding its robotics footprint around Fremont as it works toward its Optimus humanoid, a reminder that the U.S. response to Chinese scale is being built in places like the East Bay as well as argued over in Washington.
The Inverter Ban Could Reach Beyond Robots
The less flashy half of the order may have the wider economic footprint. Power inverters convert direct-current electricity to alternating current and are used in renewable-energy systems, data centers and household appliances; the FCC’s official determination says connected inverters could be exploited to shut systems down, collect data or enable remote access.
That means the policy could touch clean-energy developers and infrastructure operators even if they never buy a humanoid. Washington is betting that blocking foreign-built machines and power gear now will protect critical supply chains and domestic manufacturers, while Beijing is betting the move looks more like protectionism than a path to technological leadership.
