USA and China Suddenly Unify Forces: What is Happening?
Amidst ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China, two technology giants from each nation are joining forces to develop humanoid robots. Nvidia, based in the US, is partnering with China’s Unitree to develop robots specifically for researchers. Furthermore, Nvidia plans to collaborate with robot manufacturers from Europe and South Korea, according to an Nvidia AI chip executive.
In a keynote address ahead of the Computex event in Taiwan, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced that the company is working with China’s Unitree to provide a standard version of the Unitree H2 robot for academic research needs. Specifically, the robot’s body will be provided by Unitree, its arms will be supported by Singapore-based Sharpa, while its computational brain will be powered by Nvidia, as reported by Reuters.
Nvidia stated that researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, San Diego, are among the parties planning to utilise these advanced machines. Unitree, which gained significant attention through its dancing robots during China’s Spring Festival gala earlier this year, is currently seeking an initial public offering (IPO) in its home country.
However, US lawmakers have accused Unitree of having extensive links to the Chinese government and military, leading to the introduction of bills that would prohibit the use of the company’s robots by researchers receiving US government funding. Nvidia executives told Reuters that the company intends to pursue further collaborations, similar to the Unitree partnership, with robotics firms outside of China. They did not name partners in the US, South Korea, or Europe, speaking on condition of anonymity as these plans have not yet been made public.
Nvidia executives noted that the collaboration with Unitree aims to enhance the cybersecurity of Unitree robots for researchers. For instance, every software update intended for the robot’s subsystems must pass through an Nvidia chip, allowing the code’s authenticity to be verified. By directly integrating Nvidia’s ‘Blackwell’ chips with the Unitree robot body, Nvidia is introducing the same security features used to protect data centre servers. This security technology, known as secure boot and confidential computing, is designed to ensure that robots cannot run malicious code and that sensitive data cannot be transferred from the robot without authorisation.