The number that matters is 4.4: the weight in pounds above which a foreign-made robot can no longer get the US equipment authorization it needs to be sold. On July 28, the Federal Communications Commission added 'foreign-produced advanced robotic devices,' plus foreign-made power inverters, to its Covered List, acting on a National Security Determination issued July 27 by a White House-convened interagency body. Placement on the list does not ban ownership: it blocks FCC equipment authorization, which any radio-connected device needs before it can lawfully be marketed or imported, and it applies only to new models from July 28 onward. Existing, already-certified models stay legal, and robots people already own are unaffected.
The definition reaches further than the headlines suggest. A covered device is a ground-moving mechanical mobile device, autonomous or remote-controlled, with environment-perceiving sensors, connectivity of at least 200 kbps in either direction, and software or AI onboard or in the cloud, weighing more than 4.4 pounds including its dock. That captures humanoids and robot dogs, but an FCC spokesperson confirmed to The Verge that it captures most robot vacuums, and press analysis extends the same reading to lawn-mowing, sidewalk-delivery and warehouse robots like Amazon's; named vacuum brands include Roborock, Ecovacs, Dreame and Narwal, and Roomba's maker is now Chinese-owned. Exempted: trains, drones already banned in December 2025, underwater vehicles, robotaxis, FDA-classified medical robots and fixed industrial arms. The Department of War can grant Conditional Approvals for robots, DHS holding the same role for inverters, and federal purchases are exempt.
The country is not named, but the target is legible. China ships 80 to 90 percent of the humanoids sold to date and holds more than half of industrial robot installations; Unitree, which Counterpoint Research puts at 26.4% of 2025 humanoid installations and whose own IPO filing claims more than 32%, is the clearest single company hit; it filed for a $610 million IPO in March and announced its Nvidia partnership on June 1 at GTC Taipei, nearly two months before the July 28 action. The text is formally country-neutral, which means Japanese, South Korean and German makers are caught too. The determination cites real incidents: a vulnerability class exposing thousands of home robots' cameras and maps, a self-propagating 'humanoid botnet' flaw, and a suspected backdoor researchers found in Chinese robot dogs in April 2025. The same notice covers connected power inverters, where Sungrow and Huawei lead and officials cite the Volt Typhoon campaign. China's Ministry of Commerce called the move, in a compressed English rendering of its statement, 'discriminatory and suppressive,' and warned of retaliation.
The split in reactions maps the two honest readings. Evan Beard, CEO of Standard Bots, called it 'one of the strongest technology-security actions in modern US history,' and CFR's Rush Doshi called it among the most significant moves for the US robotics ecosystem. Georg Stieler of STM warned it could slow US physical AI innovation by cutting startups and researchers off from low-cost Chinese platforms, Interact Analysis's Rueben Scriven said it is 'more likely to inhibit' the US humanoid industry, and UCSD's Henrik Christensen called it 'potentially much wider than China.' The DJI precedent sits underneath: the US banned consumer drones years ago and still has no consumer drone maker. For builders, the practical clock is model-year length: today's certified Chinese platforms remain buyable, but anything designed for the US market now needs a supply-chain answer that does not exist yet.