Following semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and clean energy, the US is preparing for the next "strategic high ground"—humanoid robots.
According to a recent Politico report, the Trump administration is drafting a new national robotics strategy, positioning humanoid robots as a critical component of future industrial competition. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has begun frequent meetings with executives from major tech firms and is considering an executive order potentially issued next year to accelerate domestic R&D and manufacturing of humanoid robots. Simultaneously, the US Department of Transportation is organizing a robotics task force to lay the groundwork for policy frameworks.
After AI data centers, power grid upgrades, and chip manufacturing, humanoid robots are now being pushed to the forefront of national industrial strategy.
The timing is telling: Tesla is gearing up for the "era of a million robots."
Another backdrop to the US government's intensified focus on humanoid robots is Tesla's visibly accelerating efforts. Elon Musk has previously revealed that Tesla plans to scale production of its humanoid robot, Optimus, to one million units by the end of next year. Earlier this year, Tesla even placed a massive order for linear actuators from China, signaling an imminent ramp-up in its robotics business.
If Tesla achieves this goal, it would mark the transition of humanoid robots from the lab stage to the threshold of large-scale industrial production—a "technological inflection point" no country can ignore.
A US Commerce Department spokesperson stated unequivocally:
"We are committed to robotics and advanced manufacturing because they are essential to bringing critical industries back to the US."
Behind this statement lies a recurring US objective in recent years: rebuilding domestic supply chains and reducing external dependencies, especially amid intensifying technological and manufacturing competition with China.
Congress is also in motion: A National Robotics Commission is on the horizon.
It’s not just the executive branch—interest in robotics is rapidly heating up on Capitol Hill. Reports indicate that Republicans proposed an amendment to the latest National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to establish a "National Robotics Commission." Although it was ultimately excluded from the final bill, other legislative efforts are still underway. This suggests that, amid partisan gridlock and global instability, technological sovereignty has become one of the few issues capable of bipartisan consensus.
Beyond AI, chips, space, drones, and clean energy, robotics is seen as a crucial piece of future national power—especially given trends like aging populations, labor shortages, and accelerating manufacturing automation. The strategic value of humanoid robots will only grow.
Wall Street is already "betting on the future": 1 billion humanoid robots by 2050.
Wall Street has long begun placing bets on this sector. Morgan Stanley analyst Shawn Kim noted in a recent report that cumulative global deployments of humanoid robots could exceed one billion units by 2050.
Their baseline projection is that adoption will remain relatively slow before 2035. However, with breakthroughs in hardware and AI models, declining costs, and increasing societal acceptance, adoption will accelerate significantly in the latter half of the 2030s and surge in the 2040s.
In other words, today’s seemingly forward-looking—even "ahead of its time"—national strategy is effectively staking a claim on the industrial landscape post-2030.
Navigating great-power tech competition.
From a broader perspective, humanoid robots are just one piece of a much larger puzzle.
The US government clearly recognizes that the next decade will be pivotal for global high-tech competition among major powers. As the world moves toward "bloc formation" and "de-risking," technologies like chips, rare earths, AI models, robotics, drones, and space exploration are no longer just commercial concerns—they are now matters of national security.
Under this logic, humanoid robots—a convergence of advanced manufacturing, AI chips, batteries, servo systems, and precision materials—naturally become a battleground for supremacy.
