U.S. Bans New Chinese Humanoids, Zuck’s Op-Ed, eBay's $56M Lawsuit | Diet TBPN

**John Coogan** (0:01)
The US government has banned Chinese humanoid robots. The US is banning new imports of foreign made humanoid robots, quadruped robots, robot dogs. You might know them, bye.
Very controversial based on, we gotta get General Catalyst to weigh in on this, because aren't they anti-robot dog? Wasn't that the whole thing of the video?

**Jordi Hays** (0:20)
Maybe I'm just remembering it.

**John Coogan** (0:21)
That's right, that's right. So they must be celebrating.

**Jordi Hays** (0:22)
Some platform VCs are very pro robot dogs.

**John Coogan** (0:27)
Everyone should be pro robot dog. Anyway, there's nothing wrong with a robot dog, unless it's a geopolitical discussion, and then there's another layer to the debate. So the Federal Communication Commission's FCC today announced some restrictions, and these apply to new versions of those products. FCC Chair Brendan Carr said the move is intended to, quote, secure America's critical supply chains. China, meanwhile, has condemned the decision as protectionism. Is that because they're protecting the small children from getting smacked in the face by the humanoid robots?
It is protected. I know. I know.

**Jordi Hays** (1:05)
That video, I think that you're referring to. Yeah, brutal. Absolutely brutal. We should try to pull it up. Try to find the humanoid kicking a child, please.
Sounds wrong, but I just want to get at the truth.

**John Coogan** (1:17)
Yes.

**Jordi Hays** (1:18)
I just want the truth.

**John Coogan** (1:19)
The move comes as Chinese companies have established a commanding lead in humanoid robotics of the roughly 15,000 humanoid robots shipped worldwide in 2025 China's Unitree and AGIBOT, each delivered more than 5,000.

**Jordi Hays** (1:37)
Okay, we have the video of the robot kicking the child.

**John Coogan** (1:39)
Oh, brutal. There's another one where he's spinning around and gives him a spinning back fist, but that is crazy. Seeing that, you're like, yeah, I'm up for some protection.

**Jordi Hays** (1:50)
Gross negligence.

**John Coogan** (1:53)
If it's going to protect children, I think it's maybe in the best interest. No, that's not why this is happening, of course. Deeply wrong. So 5,000 units were delivered from each Unitree and AGIBOT. By comparison, US companies including Tesla and figure, shipped only a few hundred robots each. If that, China is also estimated to control about 85 percent of the global humanoid robotics market and also a ton of the deep supply chain, obviously. According to the Associated Press, the restrictions are expected to add new tension to US-China relations ahead of a planned September meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump.
The FCC argues the measures are necessary to reduce potential risks posed by connected foreign-made devices that could become part of critical American infrastructure.
What's interesting here is that we're seeing a ban on Chinese technology that is so nascent, that you don't have a coalition of companies that are saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, I've deployed, my business is built on top of unitary. I know there's geopolitical considerations, but I can't make the cars that I make without them. I can't run my business without them, and so this is going to hurt me. No one's really stepping up in the same way that they are with Chinese LLMs, which a lot of companies are like, no, I'm actually going to cut my inference cost by 80 percent.

**Jordi Hays** (3:17)
And you have all of the various cloud businesses that are already making money.

**John Coogan** (3:22)
Making money from these models. Exactly.

**Jordi Hays** (3:25)
I saw a bunch of people that were sort of saying that they didn't like this, that it was protectionist, and that there must have been some American humanoid or robotics companies that were lobbying for this in DC. Maybe there were, but I personally don't want a hundred million humanoid robots in this country running around that are not made by a US company, or at least a Western ally.

**John Coogan** (3:54)
Yeah. There's been the DJI ban, there's been various surveillance tools that are banned, but there's still so many different pieces of technology that come from all over the world.
I wonder where people would like to draw the line generally on technology. Is it okay if the Wi-Fi router is made internationally?

**Jordi Hays** (4:16)
We drew the line on Huawei.

**John Coogan** (4:19)
Yeah. On Huawei, on the 5G tower specifically, but you can still get a router, a Wi-Fi router for your house that comes from China. You have to imagine that many of the actuators, the motors, the batteries, CATL, cattle company, ships, batteries for all sorts of stuff.
The Google Waymo approach I think is probably the correct finding the line. So Waymo is sourcing almost all the parts for the new Waymos from China, but they are building them, I believe, in the United States and all of the software is from Google or Alphabet or Waymo. And so you have to imagine that they're able to tear all these pieces down and sort of maintain their own cybersecurity posture, which is really what this is all about. But it is interesting. Do you think this actually accelerates the American humanoid market?