China Has an Army of Robots on Its Side in the Tariff War

[John Clark]

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription.

China Has an Army of Robots on Its Side in the Tariff War

Enormous investments in factory equipment and artificial intelligence are giving China an edge in car manufacturing and other industries.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/business/china-tariffs-robots-automation.html?unlocked_article_code=1.B08.4HfT.iuCZOOVKH4-v&smid=em-share

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/business/china-tariffs-robots-automation.html?unlocked_article_code=1.B08.4HfT.iuCZOOVKH4-v&smid=em-share

[John Clark]

By the way, yesterday Elon Musk said that the mass production of Tesla's robots will be delayed because of China's ban on exports of rare earth magnets to the US in retaliation for Trump's ridiculous 145% tariff. Robots need those magnets because  they need a lot of small but powerful energy efficient electric motors, and you can't make those without rare earth metals. 

China accounts for well over 90% of the world's production of rare earth metals, and nearly all of the rare earth magnets. In addition to robots, a modern F 35 fighter jet has about 920 pounds of rare earth metals in it, and a Virginia class nuclear submarine has about 9,200 pounds, 10 times as much.  

John K Clark    See what's on my new list at  Extropolis

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