FCC Covered List to Include Foreign Advanced Robotic Devices and Power Inverters

MacLeech

https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-adds-foreign-produced-power-inverters-and-robots-covered-list-0

WASHINGTON, July 28, 2026—Today, the Federal Communications Commission updated its
Covered List to include two new categories of devices—“advanced robotic devices” (defined as
mobile robots, such as humanoids and quadrupeds) and, separately, connected power inverters
produced in foreign countries.

The power inverters section interested me since those are installed on the majority of solar installations. They had more about that here:
https://www.fcc.gov/sites/default/files/power-inverter-fcc-determination.pdf

Inverters’ remote connectivity introduces additional vulnerabilities which compound as inverter-
based resources proliferate on the U.S. grid. These vulnerabilities could enable foreign firms to
turn off the inverters or use them to collect and exfiltrate data, facilitate remote access and
surveillance by foreign government actors, or be otherwise exploited through a cyberattack.

Somewhat-Reticent

So essentially anything “smart” ( AKA internet‑connected )?

MacLeech

Somewhat-Reticent So essentially anything “smart” ( AKA internet‑connected )?

More like anything “smart” dominated by Chinese manufacturing and low retail prices that pushes domestic manufacturing out of business.

InternetJeff

IMO, the list is not nearly long enough.

Zenit_IIfx

Actions like this are very much attempts to put the cat back in the bag 20-30 years too late. Domestic electronics manufacturing (as in full lifecycle fab to completed product) has been decimated. It’s basically contained to defense and aerospace at this point. Case in point - try to order a small batch of PCB’s. US companies either do not want your order or charge many times over what the Chinese PCB providers charge, to the point that even with a tariff on the Chinese product, the US manufactured PCB is not economical or feasible.

We can bring it back, but there will be a cost. A cost the market is probably unwilling to hold on its own. The problem is the whole ecosystem of electronics manufacturing is hollowed out. You have a small number of vendors of critical parts. The critical parts are too expensive for small players to consume, or for big players to justify. Which is why you see nonsense like HPE offering “Trusted ProLiant” servers of US origin, where the only Made in USA parts are a US flag sticker and the iLO license booklet. They just assemble the server here and flash the firmware. The board still came from overseas.

Meanwhile in Taiwan, China, or Vietnam there is an extremely healthy ecosystem of components manufacturers, dealers, street vendors, etc. making manufacturing of any electronic thing an easy task. While in the USA your battling vendors who could care less for small volume.

I look back at my computer collection and the drop off of “Made in USA” to “Assembled in USA” to “Made in Not USA” happened over the course of the 1990’s and was basically done by the early 2000’s. Apple was fairly late to shutter US domestic computer manufacturing - as in bare board to full system.

For an idea of what a made in USA computer (bare board to completed board) costs, with last years technology (its insanely costly):
https://www.raptorcs.com/content/base/products.html

A made in USA router with no shortcuts (not just screwed together and a flag sticker slapped on it) would probably cost 10x what a typical overseas router costs.

MacLeech

Zenit_IIfx I think part of these bans is the hope it will jump start a push to domestic manufacturing. Tariffs were another part of that push although when Biden signed his tariffs into law part of it was economic support for new manufacturing facilities.

Either way multiple administrations have been trying to ween the U.S. off vital industry manufacturing by foreign countries, especially China..

Hence:

To ensure the United States is able to take advantage of this generational technology,
the United States must have an independent and resilient robotics supply chain and industrial
base. As the 2025 National Security Strategy states, “The United States will reindustrialize its
economy, ‘re-shore’ industrial production, and encourage and attract investment in our economy
and our workforce, with a focus on the critical and emerging technology sectors that will define
the future.”

InternetJeff

MacLeech I think part of these bans is the hope it will jump start a push to domestic manufacturing.

This.

The alternative arguments that we can’t get from here to there because [reasons] grow increasingly tiresome. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Zenit_IIfx

InternetJeff The alternative arguments that we can’t get from here to there because [reasons] grow increasingly tiresome.

Oh we can definitely get there. For profit stock companies are not going to drive this at all. National Security and modern Capitalism are not aligned here. The state is saying it needs domestic manufacturing to survive as a superpower (true) but Big Corporate Global Entity that MUST keep stock chart line going up says “I can make this 900% cheaper in wherever, I’ll do the minimum and pray the political regime changes”. If they can get away with slapping a flag sticker on a 99% foreign content thing and check a box, they will!

The government allowed all of this to walk out the door, corporations did it on their own free will. It wasn’t like China held a gun up to the US Tech Industry and told them YOU! Move all of your factories here!. They did it because it was cheaper than paying American people, American taxes, and American suppliers.

Now Uncle Sam has to wield a bat to drag this stuff back, with the corporate entities kicking and screaming.

InternetJeff

Zenit_IIfx Now Uncle Sam has to wield a bat

Well, on that much I agree. 😁