The Trump administration on Tuesday banned imports of new Chinese humanoid robots and power inverters.
The development comes even as Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg argued in an interview that Washington should not block Chinese artificial intelligence models from the US market, Reuters reported.
The Federal Communications Commission released measures barring Chinese imports of new humanoid and quadruped robots, along with connected power inverters used to link renewable energy sources and batteries to power grids and data centres.
"These devices could create supply chain vulnerabilities that could disrupt US economic and national security and could create a cybersecurity risk that threatened American critical infrastructure," the FCC said in a statement, with Chairman Brendan Carr adding that the agency "will continue to do our part to secure America's critical supply chains."
The restrictions apply only to models not yet released, though the FCC retains authority to revoke authorisations for previously approved models, adding that the agency is expected to exempt many non-Chinese suppliers, as it has done with earlier bans on foreign drones and routers.
The measures are expected to hit Unitree, a world leader in humanoid robots with just under a fifth of global market share, according to Counterpoint Research data cited by the agency.
The firm was recently added to the Pentagon's list of alleged Chinese military-backed companies.
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US Representative John Moolenaar, who chairs the House Select Committee on China, reportedly said the FCC's move "protects our country and strengthens our nation's robotics industry."
The Chinese embassy in Washington said Beijing "urges the United States to heed the objective and rational voices of the business communities in both countries" and warned it would "take all necessary measures" in response to actions harming its interests.
Separately, Zuckerberg told Financial Times, that the US government should not block Chinese models to gain an edge in the AI race, and cautioned against "regulatory capture" by American frontier labs that could stifle domestic competition.
He said banning cutting-edge Chinese AI in the US would not be "an effective solution."
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