Faraday Future is best known as an electric vehicle company, but it is increasingly positioning robotics as a major part of its future, describing itself more broadly as a “physical AI ecosystem company”.
The California-based company is now trying to build a US robotics business around technology and products that currently rely substantially on Chinese manufacturing partners.
At its recent “Built in USA” conference in Los Angeles, FF outlined plans to bring a US robot factory online by the end of 2026, with its first US-assembled robot scheduled for February 2027.
The company ultimately wants to move beyond domestic assembly towards greater US manufacturing, while introducing three to five new or next-generation robotics products in the country each year.
That strategy comes at an interesting time. Chinese manufacturers have established a commanding position in the rapidly growing humanoid robotics market, while US regulators are paying increasing attention to foreign-made connected technologies and their supply chains.
For FF, therefore, bringing robotics production to the US is about more than simply moving an assembly line. The company sees localization as a way to strengthen regulatory compliance, supply-chain resilience, quality control and customer support while gradually developing domestic suppliers and manufacturing capabilities.
In this interview with Robotics & Automation News, Jerry Wang, global executive chairman of Faraday Future, explains how the company intends to make that transition and why it believes its experience in electric vehicles gives it a useful starting point.
Wang discusses the implications of new FCC rules, the likely cost disadvantage of manufacturing robots in the US and the challenges involved in replacing imported components with domestically sourced alternatives.
He also explains how FF could reuse parts of its existing EV manufacturing infrastructure, including its Hanford, California factory, and argues that electric vehicles and robots are not simply two unrelated businesses.
Instead, Wang says technologies including AI, perception, sensor fusion, computing, connectivity and data can form a common foundation for both – with robotics potentially becoming a significant new growth business alongside FF’s automotive operations.
Interview with Jerry Wang
Robotics & Automation News: What specifically do the new FCC rules change for Faraday Future and other US companies currently sourcing robotics products from overseas manufacturers?
Jerry Wang: FF maintains its stance as a US-based company and has received FCC certification for all of the products it currently produces and sells in the US marketplace. The Company will continue to work with all regulatory bodies in the US including the FCC for future certification of its future EAI robotics products.
For Faraday Future, the policy reinforces the importance of our localization strategy and “Built in USA” roadmap.
As the company has publicly stated, we are working to strengthen US-based R&D, supply-chain integration, manufacturing, certification support, sales, and service capabilities for our Embodied AI and robotics products.
We believe these changes create additional incentives for robotics companies to build more resilient, compliant, and domestically supported supply chains while continuing to meet customer needs in the US market.
The company has also: Participated in the FCC public-comment process. Announced efforts to localize production and compliance capabilities in the United States. Hired advisors focused on FCC, ICTS, and NDAA compliance.
R&AN: FF currently relies on Chinese OEMs for its robotics products. How much of the robot will actually be assembled or manufactured in the US when your factory comes online?
JW: We have not publicly provided a specific percentage of US-manufactured content for future robotics products.
What we have said is that our “Built in USA” strategy includes local assembly and production capabilities, the development of US suppliers for key components, and expanded domestic manufacturing and service infrastructure.
Our goal is to progressively build a stronger US-based robotics ecosystem while maintaining the flexibility to work with global partners as the business scales.
From FF’s perspective, the objective is not simply to relocate final assembly, but to develop a broader US-based robotics ecosystem that includes suppliers, manufacturing partners, software developers, system integrators, and customer support infrastructure.
R&AN: You plan to move from “Assembled in USA” to “Made in USA” by 2028. Which components are the most difficult to bring onshore, and what will still need to be imported?
JW: We have not publicly disclosed which specific components would remain imported or the exact localization mix by 2028. What we have said is that we’re pursuing a “Built in USA” strategy and exploring domestic supply sources for key robotics components and subsystems.
Like the broader robotics industry, we expect localization to be a phased process that balances US manufacturing growth with access to world-class technologies and suppliers from around the globe.
R&AN: Manufacturing robots in the US is likely to cost more than sourcing them from China. How do you expect US-made robots to compete on price, and what advantages compensate for the higher manufacturing costs?
JW: We believe the conversation should be broader than manufacturing cost alone. Faraday Future has publicly emphasized that the strategic value of US-based robotics production includes supply-chain security, regulatory certainty, faster customer response times, improved quality control, and reduced geopolitical and logistics risks.
Manufacturing cost is only one part of the equation. Faraday Future has publicly stated that its “Built in USA” strategy is designed to improve supply-chain resilience, regulatory compliance, quality control, customer support, and speed to market.
While overseas production may offer certain cost advantages, we believe US-based robotics manufacturing can deliver meaningful benefits in reliability, service, security, and operational flexibility that are increasingly important to customers and enterprise users.
R&AN: FF says it is considering retrofitting its Hanford automotive factory as well as establishing a new robotics facility. How much of your existing EV manufacturing infrastructure can realistically be reused for robot production?
JW: One of the advantages Faraday Future brings to robotics and manufacturing is that we are not starting from scratch. We have publicly disclosed that we are evaluating both the retrofit of our existing Hanford facility where we build our EVs and the potential development of a dedicated robotics production site on its own.
While we have not publicly quantified how much of the existing infrastructure would be reused in Hanford, we believe there are meaningful synergies between advanced EV manufacturing and robotics manufacturing.
Many of the core capabilities required for robotics production, including industrial assembly operations, quality-control systems, supply-chain management, testing processes, manufacturing engineering, logistics, and production management, are areas where Faraday Future already has experience and infrastructure. Those capabilities can provide a foundation as we expand into robotics.
R&AN: Faraday Future was founded as an electric vehicle company but now describes itself as a “Physical AI ecosystem company”. Is robotics becoming the company’s main business, or do you see vehicles and robots remaining equally important?
JW: Faraday Future’s evolution into a physical AI ecosystem company is not about moving away from vehicles. Rather, it’s about applying the company’s expertise in AI, software, intelligent systems, user experience, and advanced mobility across multiple high-growth markets.
We view intelligent vehicles and embodied AI robotics as highly complementary opportunities. Both rely on many of the same core capabilities, including AI, perception systems, connectivity, computing platforms, software integration, and intelligent interaction between people and machines.
As Faraday Future has publicly stated, the company believes there are significant technology and ecosystem synergies between smart EVs and robotics.
Our vehicle business remains an important part of our strategy, including the development of the FF brand and FX mass-market vehicle initiatives.
At the same time, we see embodied AI and robotics as a potentially transformative growth opportunity that can leverage the technology foundation, talent, and operational capabilities we have already built.
R&AN: What technology can genuinely be shared between FF’s electric vehicles and its humanoid and quadruped robots – particularly in AI, perception, data and manufacturing – rather than these simply being two separate businesses under the same company?
JW: We don’t view EVs and robotics as separate technology stacks. Both rely on many of the same core capabilities, including AI, perception, sensor fusion, computing, connectivity, software platforms, and data intelligence.
Faraday Future’s physical AI strategy is built on the belief that technologies developed for intelligent vehicles can also support embodied AI robots, creating synergies in engineering, manufacturing, data, and product development.
That’s why we see vehicles and robotics as complementary components of a larger physical AI ecosystem rather than unrelated businesses.
From a manufacturing perspective, there are also meaningful overlaps in supply-chain management, electronics integration, quality-control systems, testing procedures, advanced manufacturing operations, and production engineering.
We believe our experience developing intelligent electric vehicles provides capabilities and infrastructure that can help accelerate our robotics initiatives.
Ultimately, our vision is that vehicles and robots become complementary participants in a broader physical AI ecosystem.
Rather than operating as disconnected businesses, we believe they can benefit from shared technologies, shared talent, shared infrastructure, and a common AI platform that creates value across multiple categories of intelligent products.
R&AN: You plan to launch and manufacture three to five new or next-generation robotics products in the US each year. What would success look like over the next two or three years – robot shipments, US manufacturing capacity, revenue, or something else?
JW: We believe success should be measured across multiple dimensions, not by any single metric. While shipments, revenue, and manufacturing capacity are all important indicators, our broader objective is to establish a sustainable physical AI and robotics ecosystem in the United States.
Over the next several years, we will be focused on executing against the milestones we have publicly outlined: bringing new robotics products to market, expanding our embodied AI technology capabilities, building local manufacturing and assembly capacity, growing strategic partnerships, and developing a stronger domestic supply chain.
But keep in mind that success for us is not just about robot shipments or revenue. It’s about proving that we can build a sustainable physical AI ecosystem that combines innovative products, customer adoption, US-based manufacturing capabilities, and a growing domestic supply chain.
Over the next two to three years, we’d like to see new products successfully launched, real-world deployment across multiple use cases, continued progress on localization, and growing commercial traction that validates the long-term opportunity for embodied AI and robotics.
