The Federal Communications Commission is blocking new imports of foreign-made robots and power inverters that it perceives as national security threats.
The FCC banned foreign-made humanoid robots, four-legged robot dogs and power inverters from entering the U.S., according to a Tuesday fact sheet from the agency. These devices are just the newest categories added to the FCC’s Covered List of technology barred from entering U.S. markets.
“I welcome these Executive Branch national security determinations, and I am pleased that the FCC has now added foreign-produced advanced robotics and power inverters to the FCC’s Covered List,” FCC chair Brendan Carr said, according to the fact sheet.
“Following President [Donald] Trump’s leadership, the FCC will continue to do our part to secure America’s critical supply chains and, with today’s action, the FCC is acting in lock step with our national security agencies to do just that,” Carr added.
Chinese firms accounted for the vast majority of roughly 13,000 total worldwide humanoid robot shipments in 2025, according to research firm Omdia. One Chinese manufacturer, AgiBot, shipped 5,168 units, 39 percent of the global total.
Trump plans to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in September, CBS News reported.
“Protectionism does not make the U.S. more competitive and will only hurt the interests of U.S. companies and consumers,” Mao Ning, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
When asked to comment, the White House provided the Daily Caller News Foundation with the FCC fact sheet. The FCC also referred the DCNF to its fact sheet.
“Relying on foreign-produced advanced robotic devices presents unacceptable supply chain and cybersecurity vulnerabilities,” according to the FCC’s national security determination on foreign-produced robots. “Advanced 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.”
NVIDIA, AgiBot, and Unitree each did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
The FCC included “exemptions for devices that, based on a DOW or DHS finding, pose no unacceptable threat,” Carr said in a post on X.
“Inverters’ remote connectivity introduces additional vulnerabilities which compound as inverter-based resources proliferate on the U.S. grid,” the administration’s national security determination said in part.
“These vulnerabilities could enable foreign firms to turn off the inverters or use them to collect and exfiltrate data, facilitate remote access and surveillance by foreign government actors, or be otherwise exploited through a cyberattack.”
NVIDIA, meanwhile, has been working with Unitree. The tech firm unveiled an open humanoid robot reference design that uses the body of a Chinese-made Unitree robot, according to Nvidia’s official May 31 announcement. The design combines “a Unitree H2 Plus humanoid robot … (the ‘body’), with Nvidia Jetson Thor-powered onboard compute and Isaac GR00T software … (the ‘brain’).”
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