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US distributor of China’s most popular humanoid robots pivots after US ban

FCC ban on foreign-made robots accelerated RoboStore’s US manufacturing plans.

A person works on a quadruped robotic dog that is lying on a counter, while a second person stands in front of a computer with multiple display screens inside the office of Robo Inc.
Image: Ars Technica

By NNN Staff1 min read

Originally reported by Ars Technica

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FCC ban on foreign-made robots accelerated RoboStore’s US manufacturing plans.

The short version

  • A leading US distributor of China’s most popular humanoid robots and robot dogs now plans to produce its own robots at a facility on Long Island, New York.
  • The business pivot comes amid the US government’s growing crackdown on foreign-made robots.
  • The company RoboStore had previously become the main North American distributor for humanoid robots and quadruped robots from Unitree Robotics, a Chinese robotics company that produces some of the most affordable and popular humanoid robot models.

What happened

Universities such as Harvard and MIT, along with tech companies like Amazon and Nvidia, purchased such robots made in China through RoboStore for their own research and development purposes. “We’ve sold over 1,500 robots and deployed them and worked with customers like Cisco, OpenAI, Nvidia, and over 150 universities,” Teddy Haggerty , founder and CEO of RoboStore, told Ars.

Why it matters

But on August 10, RoboStore announced a major shift in its business strategy with plans to fully open a 66,000-square-foot facility for manufacturing commercial robots by the first fiscal quarter of 2027.

Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Ars Technica via the links above and below.

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