Today, when most people think of AI, they envision chatbots and large language models—text‑based systems that digitally converse or generate content. But comments like Mr. Andreessen’s above, and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang—who was in Paris this week and said “this is going to be the decade of robotics and autonomous machines”—suggest that the real disruption is only just beginning.
The next frontier is embodied AI: robots, drones, and machines that move, sense, act, and transform the physical world.
This shift won’t just change tech. It will rewire global industry—logistics, defense, healthcare, agriculture, construction, energy.
Where software once ate the world, physical AI will now build, repair, and secure it.
The Signals Are Here
- Skild AI, a robotics startup backed by Samsung and NVIDIA, raised fresh millions at a $4.5 billion valuation.
- Gecko Robotics secured $125 million to scale its fleet of infrastructure-inspecting machines—already used in U.S. power plants and military ships.
- 1X Technologies unveiled Redwood, a new AI model powering its humanoid robot, NEO. Trained on real-world home data, Redwood will enable NEO to autonomously handle domestic tasks like laundry, answering the door, and navigating familiar spaces.
- Universal Robots launched its fastest collaborative robot yet, powered by U.S.-based AI.
- Anduril is gearing up to manufacture tens of thousands of autonomous defense systems annually at its new Arsenal-1 facility.
Meanwhile, China isn’t waiting.
While U.S. companies fight for market share and venture capital, China is mobilizing at a national scale.
Xi Jinping has declared humanoid robotics a strategic priority, publicly visiting AI robotics factories and linking the sector to China’s future industrial dominance. Over 30 Chinese companies are now building humanoid robots—compared to fewer than 10 in the U.S. These robots are priced aggressively, with some models starting at $12,000, thanks to vertically integrated supply chains and state-backed manufacturing. That is on top of the Chinese government flooding the sector with financial support—including over ¥1 trillion (~$137 billion) in AI and robotics subsidies and a 40x jump in government procurement.
This isn’t just competition—it’s a coordinated campaign to dominate the global embodied AI stack. If China captures this market, they won’t just make the hardware—they’ll control the interfaces, data flows, and behavioral norms of the physical world.
Washington Is Behind.
As technologies and VCs increasingly understand embodied AI as both a national security and economic imperative, the U.S. government is still treating it like a science fair. It’s time to catch up.
The government should start by banning CCP-affiliated robotics companies from critical sectors, ensuring these machines have no presence near U.S. military bases, research laboratories, or other sensitive infrastructure. We need a clear market signal restricting imports of Chinese humanoid robots, similar to the Huawei playbook, which would push investment toward American and allied alternatives.
Beyond that, the Defense Production Act should be leveraged to accelerate the production of domestic robotics, focusing on key inputs like rare earth minerals, magnets, and affordable raw materials like steel and aluminum that will be needed to build this fleet of autonomous devices. Additionally, establishing a “Clean Robotics” standard, similar to the Clean Networks initiative in 5G, could set a framework for safe, transparent, U.S.-aligned embodied AI systems.
Zoom Out.
Simply put, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Imagine chip fabs powered by smart robots working around the clock, homes outfitted with humanoids trained on daily routines, or battlefields that win wars with larger numbers of smaller systems. We’re moving beyond the age of pure software and entering one where power is measured in silicon, steel, and autonomy. The critical question now is: who will build the machines that run the world?
