US Robotics Race Relies on Hardware From China
The brains may come from the US, but the body could very well be Made In China.
At Physical Intelligence, a San Francisco-based startup, cofounder and researcher Sergey Levine is building the models, or brains, designed to provide intelligence for a range of robots — be they warehouse robots or humanoid machines. Physical Intelligence is one of many startups in Silicon Valley working on robotics software.
In an episode of The Peterman Pod published Monday, Levine said the US robotics industry has its own advantages against competition abroad, but the one area that could significantly advance America’s progress is building the hardware supply chain.
“Availability of reliable low-cost hardware is a big deal. And right now, hardware used for robotics research — a lot of that does come from China,” Levine said. “It’s good. It’s relatively inexpensive. It’s of high quality and meets the standards that people generally need. But it’d be awfully nice to be able to source all of that domestically as well. I don’t think there’s anything impossible about that.”
Building an AI capable of making robots smart enough to handle a wide range of tasks is only part of the industry’s challenge.
In the US in particular, robotics leaders have said sourcing the physical components for robots — the motors, chassis, batteries, sensors, and other materials — will be a major bottleneck for scaling, and that companies often rely on China to fill the gaps.
“The United States is no longer competitive in manufacturing, and we’re falling further behind every day. Any company that builds hardware can tell you that if you source from China instead of making it here, it’s generally 5 to 10 times cheaper,” Evan Beard, CEO of Standard Bots, said during a congressional hearing in April.
A June analysis from McKinsey found that China holds a “significant share of capacity” for robotics parts, including 90% of permanent-magnet processing. China’s progress, according to the report, is due in part to its electric vehicle ecosystem, which shares some of the components needed in robots.
US robotics executives and policymakers say China’s rapid progress in robotics and AI — combined with a strong manufacturing base — could hamper America’s ability to effectively compete in what they view as a critical emerging industry.
The concern is heightened as Washington sees China as a strategic adversary. In July, the Federal Communications Commission effectively blocked new foreign-made humanoids and other advanced robots from entering the US market, citing national security concerns.
While US manufacturers welcomed the move, some researchers and startups told Business Insider’s robotics reporter, Rya Jetha, that the ban locks out access to affordable hardware.
Levine said in the podcast that “different industries that contribute to robotics need to individually be very healthy.”
“I think that it’s important to sort of fully embrace that this is a holistic thing and not something where we can do just one piece of it and outsource everything else,” he said.
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