OpenAI-backed 1X Opens California Factory Targeting 10,000 Home Humanoid Robots in Year One
May 1, 2026 – 9:18 am
The Norway-founded company’s vertically integrated NEO factory in Hayward marks the first US-scale push to put a general-purpose humanoid robot into private homes, with shipments planned this year and a competitive field that is already crowded.
1X Technologies has opened a 58,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Hayward, California, to produce its NEO humanoid robot at consumer scale, with capacity for 10,000 units in year one and a target of more than 100,000 units annually by the end of 2027.
The Norway-founded, OpenAI-backed company described the plant as the first vertically integrated humanoid robot factory in the United States. First customer shipments are planned for 2026.
The factory currently employs more than 200 staff and is scaling. NEO is being manufactured with critical components built in-house, motors, batteries, structures, transmission systems, soft goods, and sensors, in a configuration the company describes as bottom-up American manufacturing.
"This is more than just a factory opening, it’s proof that the future of humanoid robotics is being built right here in the U.S.,” said 1X CEO and founder Bernt Børnich in the announcement.
The Hayward facility is intended as a stepping stone to a larger plant under construction in San Carlos, California.
The Product
NEO is positioned as a general-purpose home robot, designed to operate alongside humans in domestic environments rather than as an industrial bipedal for warehouses or factory floors.
Available in three colors (Tan, Gray, and Dark Brown) and offered through two commercial models:
- Early Access purchase at $20,000 with priority delivery in 2026.
- Subscription at $499 per month.
NEO is powered by Nvidia’s Jetson Thor onboard computing platform and trained using Nvidia’s Isaac open robotics simulation framework.
Demand has reportedly outstripped initial expectations. The company says first-year production capacity sold out within five days of preorders opening in October 2025.
1X raised $100 million in its push to bring NEO to market; the robot is designed with explicit safety constraints: it is light, soft to the touch, and configured without pinch-points or other hazards, a deliberate choice given the company’s ambition to deploy in private homes rather than industrial settings.
NEO learns household tasks through embodied AI, the technique under which robots acquire skills by interacting with their environment. Customers can also manually demonstrate tasks using a VR headset and controllers, and the robot includes conversational functionality that Børnich has compared to ChatGPT.
Whether those capabilities translate to reliable performance across the variety of unstructured tasks a real home presents, the open question for every consumer humanoid, is something the customer shipments later this year will start to answer.
Two Routes to Market
Beyond the consumer product, 1X has structured its commercial strategy around two routes:
- Enterprise sales for use in businesses like hotels and assisted living facilities.
- Partnerships with tech companies, robotics specialists, and others to integrate NEO into existing ecosystems and applications.