US restricts Chinese drones and humanoids as five Chinese makers take 86% of shipments

Washington tightened rules on foreign-made advanced robots and set drone tariffs effective in September, with component tariffs in 2027, while the FCC's Covered List expanded to foreign drones and advanced robots. The scale gap the restrictions do not touch: of roughly 22,000 humanoid robots shipped globally in the first half of 2026, five Chinese makers accounted for 86 percent. The likely outcome is a fragmented market rather than a clean split — Chinese firms competing on cost across Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, US and allied makers holding security-sensitive segments, and Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese manufacturers positioned in between.

Source: techcrunch.com ↗