FCC bans foreign humanoid robots and grid inverters to shield US supply chains from China-linked threats

The ban

On Tuesday the FCC placed "advanced robotic devices" and connected power inverters on its Covered List, a registry that bars equipment from receiving the authorization needed to enter the US market. The decision follows an interagency review that declared the devices an unacceptable risk. Although the order restricts foreign-produced robots and inverters "regardless of the nationality of origin," the target is unmistakably China, which dominates global manufacturing of both categories.

The equipment poses unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States or the safety and security of United States persons.

The Covered List is the legal lever the FCC has used before to block imports from China's Huawei and DJI. Adding robots and inverters extends that campaign into two markets in which Beijing has built commanding leads.

What counts as an advanced robot

The FCC definition casts a wide net. To be covered, a device must be capable of locomotion, obstacle avoidance, navigation or ground movement; carry a sensor that perceives its environment; include a network-connectivity chip; and weigh more than 4.4 pounds, docking station included. The rule catches not just bipedal humanoids and quadruped dogs but wheeled machines that meet the criteria, household robot vacuums would fall inside the ban the moment they ship with a connected brain. Inverters, the boxes that link solar panels, batteries and data-centre systems to the electricity grid, were added because the same interagency determination warned they could be exploited to "turn off the inverters or use them to collect and exfiltrate data."

The ban does not apply to models already approved and on shelves, nor does it stop retailers from selling existing inventory. The federal government is also free to buy any overseas robot or inverter it wants.

The security case

The interagency findings that underpinned the rule describe an intelligence and sabotage threat that scales with connectivity. One determination states that "the networked capabilities of advanced robotic systems create extensive vulnerabilities and vectors for attacks that can manipulate the data and physical operation of the advanced robotic system," enabling hostile actors to surveil Americans, feed foreign intelligence services or remotely commandeer the machines. For inverters, the fear is a mass remote shutdown of the grid or the theft of operational data as solar and battery capacity grows.

Last year, two researchers found that China-based Unitree Robotics pre-installed a backdoor on its Go1 robot dogs that let anyone monitor customers globally. The finding gave concrete shape to the worries now codified in the ban.

The exemption pipeline

Manufacturers are not shut out entirely. They can seek "Conditional Approval" from the Pentagon (for robots) or the Department of Homeland Security (for inverters). The application process was described as a chance to reshore production; an administration official told CNBC that "economic security is national security." Getting a waiver does not require companies to harden the security of the equipment itself, but some reports indicate applicants must lay out plans to begin manufacturing in the United States.

China's manufacturing edge

China has more than 2 million industrial robots operating in its factories, roughly five times the American installed base, according to data cited by Axios. Global robot deployments now exceed 500,000 units a year, double the figure of a decade ago. The same country is home to solar inverter giants Sungrow and the already-blacklisted Huawei, and firms like Unitree have flooded social media with videos of humanoid robots that walk, dance and fight.

The ban is the latest move in a widening effort to fence off China from the hardware layers of the AI economy, from drones and routers to the machines that will build, power and perhaps inhabit the data centres of the next decade. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr framed it as a direct extension of White House direction.

Following President 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.