Chinese Visa Impact Hits Indian Physical Ai Startups

Homegrown startups in robotics and hardware are facing the brunt of China’s move to increasingly deny visas to Indian executives. The impact is more pronounced for such specialised startups since their officials need to frequently travel to China for meeting supply chain partners and staying abreast of global innovation in the domain.Some are currently exploring alternate supply chain partners in markets such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore, while others are waiting for clarity on the visa situation, founders told ET. Such measures are delaying R&D activity, disrupting operations, and may potentially cost millions of dollars in lost business, according to the founders. The challenge is more so for smaller firms having low volumes and for whom finding alternatives is less viable.Beijing's move to refuse visas to Indian executives is also impacting other sectors such as automotive parts and electronics, which have strong business ties with Chinese firms. The visa curbs are being enforced at a critical time when India’s robotics and physical AI space is starting to gain momentum. ET earlier reported about startups raising $130 million in FY25 and $42 million in the first three months of 2026, with several new companies such as CynLr in the market to raise funds.While India’s robotics ecosystem is growing, China has a huge lead in research, manufacturing, and electronic components production such as motors, actuators and circuit boards that go into robots. Chinese robotics company, Unitree, which recently debuted in the Shanghai stock market saw its stock price surge more than 500%.At least four founders told ET that given the industry’s nascent stage in India, it is critical for them to visit China for developing relationships and keeping a tab on the latest research. However, multiple visa application rejections in recent months is likely to dent their progress if the current scenario is prolonged.Supply chain impactVineet Saraogi, cofounder and chief executive officer at XP Robotics, said he travels to China every two months, or 4–5 times a year, to work with supply chain partners, onboard new ones, and study the robotics space in the country. Saraogi’s visa has been rejected multiple times in the past two months.The company is building its own humanoids and other robotic hardware to collect data for frontier physical AI labs globally for training models. It designs its own robots, while working with supply chain firms in China to source hardware parts and manufacture them with third-party subcontractors in India.“The Indian ecosystem is still developing, and critical components such as actuators, sensors, camera modules, PCBs and other allied components are still more mature in China,” said Saraogi. “While we are developing alternatives in India, any prolonged delay could have a business impact running into a couple of million dollars.”XP Robotics has business contracts with AI labs for data and value-added services, and a prolonged disruption could put pressure on its ability to fulfil contractual obligations, he said.“We don’t buy in large volumes yet, and volumes in India are still not as large as in the US and Europe,” he said. “Being in the region helps, as virtual interactions are often constrained by language and technical communication barriers. We are trying to manage this virtually for now, but that is challenging since supply chain players have limited incentive to provide the same level of technical support at our current volumes.”A founder of a homegrown robotics startup said, on condition of anonymity, that building new relationships with supply chain partners will be challenging without travelling to China.“In addition, there are certain components that are available only in China, like lidars, a remote sensing device, used in their devices,” he said. “Chinese manufacturers provide devices that are best in terms of quality and cost. There are only a handful of companies that make them in regions such as Taiwan, Japan, and Germany, but they are not cost effective. This will affect unit economics.” The company is exploring alternate options in markets such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.R&D impactAccording to Manesh Jain, founder at Bengaluru-based construction robotics startup Flo Mobility, it will be difficult to decipher the latest technological developments without travelling to China and experiencing the on-ground changes. “You need to know what is happening at the cutting edge of research to innovate,” he said.“We are a small player and make only 15-20 machines a month,” said Jain. “While we have kept our supply chain derisked by sourcing from local players, who have stocked supplies such as controllers and motors that come from China, the fulfilment time has increased a little. However, there is likely to be a significant impact on research and development. Chinese robotics research and supply chain is on the cutting edge. We need to travel to the region to stay on top. So, our R&D for the next product will definitely have an impact.”