Lutnick Signals Possible Action On Chinese Robots After Commerce Review

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told executives at a closed-door meeting Monday that his department is studying state-subsidized robotics imports and signaled the administration could take strong action once the review is complete, according to three people who attended the meeting and were granted anonymity to discuss it.

Officials increasingly see China's state-backed robotics industry as a national security threat, fearing subsidized Chinese robots could dominate global markets before U.S. manufacturers have the scale to compete.

Chinese-made robots already face U.S. tariffs, though several attendees said Lutnick’s comments suggest the administration is considering additional action.

Lutnick’s comments reflect a growing view inside the Trump administration that robotics — not just AI chips — is becoming the next battleground in the technological competition.

“We don’t want state subsidized robotics attacking us in America, this is the arms [race] that is coming — robotic arms are coming,” Lutnick said according to notes from the meeting provided to POLITICO. “We need to make sure they’re produced in America so we’re going to study those right now.”

The roundtable brought together more than a dozen executives from companies including SpaceX, Boston Dynamics, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Siemens and Rockwell Automation to discuss how to reverse decades of manufacturing offshoring and rebuild the industrial base needed to build everything from semiconductors to robots.

The Commerce Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Administration officials and industry leaders argue the U.S. has lost much of the manufacturing base needed to build the next generation of robots, from machine tools to key components. Their goal is to rebuild that industrial ecosystem before China widens its lead in robotics manufacturing.

“The whole idea that what we’re going to end up with is an American brain with a Chinese body is a very, very bad strategic plan,” one of the people said.

Much of the discussion centered on rebuilding that domestic industrial base, with executives offering feedback on financing bottlenecks, permitting delays and policies that could accelerate factory construction and investment.

Rebuilding that industrial base will require capital as much as tariffs. Central to that effort is the Office of Strategic Capital, a Defense Department office that provides low-cost loans designed to reduce companies' cost of capital and encourage private investors to finance new factories and production capacity.

As part of that effort, OSC is in the process of underwriting loans for at least two U.S. robotics companies — Foundation Robotics and Standard Bots — though the financing has not yet been finalized and would be paired with private capital, according to two of the people.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“The administration understands the urgency here and they’re acting on it, not just talking about it,” said Evan Beard, CEO and co-founder of Standard Bots, who attended the meeting. “They’re putting real money on the table and fighting foreign market manipulations to make reshoring economically viable.”