US restrictions on Chinese-made robots are turning supply-chain geography into a competitive weapon, and Ati Robotics is positioning itself as the clearest example. The company assembles its robots in India and says its two best-selling machines contain almost no Chinese components, putting it in a position to benefit as regulators close the door on imports from China, according to a WIRED interview with founder Saurabh Chandra.
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What the FCC ban changes
Last week, US regulators banned a wide variety of Chinese-made robots from being imported to the United States because of national-security concerns, WIRED reported. The Federal Communications Commission’s decision covers new models of human-like robots, known as humanoids, and other advanced devices. For smaller robotics companies that depend on Chinese hardware, the move could hamper growth; for Ati, it could become a tailwind.
Ati was founded in 2017 to develop motors for self-driving cars, then pivoted to making its own robots, including tuggers and pallet movers that cart tons of materials through big facilities. The startup has several hundred robots in operation at warehouses and factories and more than 50 customers total, Chandra said. Its first humanoid, which moves heavy bins around, will go into service later this year.
A record investment wave — with a China hardware catch
Investment in robotics startups hit record highs this year in both the number of deals and dollars invested, according to PitchBook, which tracks venture-capital flows. Yet many of those companies primarily develop software and largely rely on Chinese suppliers for their hardware, WIRED reported. Ati took the opposite path: it developed its own hardware, a bet Chandra said many advisers cautioned against, but one that “wound up naturally limiting reliance on China.”
That bet is also a labor-cost play. R&D is based in Bangalore, which Chandra said helps keep costs down. Bangalore was in the middle of an electric-vehicle revolution in India’s two-wheeler and three-wheeler categories, and the components Ati needed for robot drivetrains had a similar power profile and characteristics to those EVs. Ati tapped into the supply chain being built for those vehicles. “Typically, automotive parts are very reliable and are produced in large volumes, hence they are very good and cost-efficient,” Chandra told WIRED. He said Ati had to do engineering work with vendors to make the parts work in a robot, “but once we did, we had a great win.”
China content, model by model
“They have different levels of what I might call ‘supply chain resiliency,’” Chandra told WIRED.
Two best-selling models — the 10,000-pound tugger and pallet mover — use very few parts from China. The tugger, which pulls trolleys carrying raw material from stores to the factory line or between process points, is “really China-free actually,” according to Chandra. The only Chinese part left in the tugger, he said, is the cells in the battery. The pallet mover has “maybe less than 5 percent Chinese parts,” including one solid-state lidar sensor.
| Model | Reported China content | Key component detail |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000-pound tugger | “Really China-free” except battery cells | Battery cells sourced from China; induction motors used, so the magnet in the motor is not from China |
| Pallet mover | Less than 5% Chinese parts | Includes one solid-state lidar sensor |
| First humanoid | Harmonic drive and frameless motor from China; battery cells from China | Full arm and actuator built in Bangalore; battery cells could be sourced from South Korea or Japan |
The humanoid is the most exposed product in the line. Its full arm and actuator are done in Bangalore, but the harmonic drive and frameless motor come from China, at least for now, and battery cells come from China as well. Chandra said the battery cells are “passive components” and Ati could get cells from South Korea or Japan “tomorrow.” He also said Ati uses induction motors, so “even the magnet in the motor is not coming from China,” a choice he called very different from many robot makers.
What this means for procurement and sourcing teams
For CSCOs and procurement directors, the interview offers a benchmark for evaluating “China-free” claims: none of Ati’s robots is 100% China-free in practice, and even the flagship tugger keeps battery cells on the Chinese sourcing list. The lesson is not that China can be eliminated overnight; it is that exposure varies sharply by component and by model, and that mapping country of origin at component level is what separates marketing language from real supply-chain resilience.
Ati’s experience also points to an adjacent-industry playbook. By borrowing components from Bangalore’s two- and three-wheeler EV ecosystem, the startup found high-volume, reliable parts with the right power profile at lower engineering cost than building everything from scratch. Procurement teams sourcing motors, actuators or drivetrains can look for similar crossover supply chains in India — but should budget for vendor engineering work, since automotive parts do not drop into robots without modification.
Finally, the FCC ban makes supplier eligibility a regulatory issue, not just a cost issue. The decision applies to new humanoid models and other advanced devices from China, and could hamper growth for smaller US robotics firms that still rely on Chinese hardware, WIRED reported. Ati’s position shows a workable alternative: assemble outside China, keep R&D in a lower-cost engineering hub, and reserve Chinese content for components where substitution is either unavailable today — or, in the case of battery cells, ready to shift to South Korea or Japan on short notice. For buyers, the operative question is no longer whether a robot is “China-free,” but which parts still are.
