The Trump administration has unveiled sweeping new bans targeting imports of new Chinese humanoid and quadruped robots, alongside connected power inverters, in a decisive move to protect the United States’ artificial intelligence buildout from perceived national security threats. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released the measures on Tuesday afternoon, July 28, effectively barring the entry of advanced robotic systems that officials argue could create severe supply chain vulnerabilities and cybersecurity risks across American critical infrastructure.
The restrictions, which went into effect immediately upon publication, represent a significant escalation in the ongoing technological decoupling between Washington and Beijing. The FCC’s action specifically targets models that have not yet been released, though the agency retains the authority to revoke authorizations for sales of models already approved for purchase in the United States. The move follows a pattern of escalating restrictions on Chinese technology, including the FCC’s earlier expansion of import bans on Huawei, ZTE, Hikvision, and Dahua equipment to cover all models.
Safeguarding the American AI Supply Chain
“These devices could create supply chain vulnerabilities that could disrupt U.S. economic and national security and could create a cybersecurity risk that threatened American critical infrastructure,” the FCC stated in its official release. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr emphasized that the agency will “continue to do our part to secure America’s critical supply chains.” The ban is explicitly framed as a measure to protect the U.S. AI buildout, which depends on a reliable and secure supply of hardware, from data center inverters to the robotic systems increasingly being deployed in sensitive industrial environments.
The ban is expected to heavily impact Chinese robotics manufacturers, most notably Unitree, a world leader in humanoid robots that currently holds just under a fifth of the global market share according to Counterpoint Research. Unitree was recently added to the Pentagon’s list of alleged Chinese military-backed companies, a designation that has historically been a precursor to tougher U.S. action. The company recently formed a high-profile partnership with Nvidia to utilize the cutting-edge Blackwell chip to power its robotic systems, a collaboration that now faces significant uncertainty. As Unitree itself acknowledged, the “GPT moment” for robots is still two to five years away — but Washington is not waiting for that moment to arrive before acting.
While Nvidia has maintained that data from these robots will remain in the U.S. and that Unitree’s primary customers are American academic and research institutions, China hawks in Washington remain unconvinced. U.S. officials fear that these advanced robots, equipped with AI-enabled “brains,” could be leveraged by malign actors to surveil Americans, enhance foreign intelligence capabilities, or be remotely commandeered to disrupt key industries. The FCC specifically warned that robots “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.”
Power Inverters and the Energy Grid Threat
Beyond robotics, the ban also targets Chinese-made power inverters, which enable renewable energy sources and batteries to connect to electrical grids and data center equipment. China is the world’s largest maker of inverters, led by Sungrow Power Supply and Huawei, the latter already heavily sanctioned by the U.S. Beijing has been aggressively expanding its share in the Western inverter market by driving down prices, raising concerns about critical infrastructure dependency.
The inverter ban is inspired by recent European action and concerns about the installation of malware. U.S. authorities are determined to avoid a repeat of the Volt Typhoon hacking campaign, revealed in 2023, in which Chinese state-linked attackers used compromised routers to target American critical infrastructure. The Department of Defense is already barred from procuring solar photovoltaic cells and inverters from foreign entities of concern, and the FCC’s action extends this logic to the broader civilian market.
Reshoring Manufacturing and Preventing Dependency
Beyond immediate security concerns, the Trump administration’s move is strategically designed to drive firms to shift manufacturing back to the United States. U.S. Representative John Moolenaar, Republican chair of the House Select Committee on China, praised the FCC’s decision, stating it “protects our country and strengthens our nation’s robotics industry.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has also warned that Chinese AI firms could face U.S. sanctions for intellectual property theft.
Following Tuesday’s actions, the FCC is expected to exempt many non-Chinese suppliers from the restrictions, mirroring its approach to recent bans on foreign drones and routers. This targeted approach underscores the administration’s focus on mitigating risks specifically associated with Chinese technology while fostering a secure domestic AI and robotics ecosystem. As the global race for AI supremacy intensifies, this ban marks a critical juncture in how the U.S. intends to govern the physical manifestations of artificial intelligence, and signals that the decoupling between the two superpowers is moving well beyond software and chips into the embodied AI era.