1X TECHNOLOGIES

1X did not start in Silicon Valley. It started in Moss, a small Norwegian town, back in 2014 under the name Halodi Robotics.

Founder and CEO Bernt Børnich had a specific and stubborn idea. Instead of building fast, rigid industrial robots, he wanted safe robots that could work right next to humans without hurting them.

That meant inventing his own motors and muscles from scratch. For years the company was a quiet engineering shop in Norway.

Then in 2023 the OpenAI Startup Fund led its Series A. Suddenly the little Norwegian robot company had the most famous name in AI on its cap table, and it rebranded to 1X.

1X wants to sell robots as labor. The long game is simple to say and brutally hard to do.

Build a humanoid robot that can handle real tasks, then sell or rent it to businesses first and homes later. Right now nobody is buying NEO off a shelf.

The company is still in the build-and-prove phase, funded by investors rather than customers. The dream is a robot you pay for like a subscription, one that does chores or warehouse work.

Whoever gets a safe, useful, affordable humanoid to market first could own a category that does not really exist yet.

NEO is the star, a bipedal humanoid robot built for the home. It walks, it has soft hands, and it is designed to do household tasks and answer questions.

Before NEO there was EVE, an earlier android on wheels aimed at security and logistics jobs like patrolling and moving things. EVE was the workhorse that proved the hardware.

NEO is the consumer dream. Both run on 1X's own hardware, including the custom motors Børnich insisted on building in-house so the robots would be safe to stand next to.

The strategy is home first, and that is the contrarian part. Most rivals aim at factories and warehouses, where robots can be caged and controlled.

1X is aiming at the messiest place possible, your house, because Børnich believes safe-around-humans is the only design that matters long term. The company built its own soft, muscle-like motors so a NEO bumping into a person does not break a rib.

It also leans hard on the OpenAI connection for AI brains and credibility. The plan is to launch in-home robots and learn from real houses, not lab demos.

Humanoid robots are the hardest problem in hardware, and doing it in someone's home is the hardest version of that. NEO has to be safe, reliable, and cheap enough that a normal family would buy one.

Right now it is none of those at scale. There is also the demo problem.

Slick videos of robots doing chores can hide how much a human is quietly helping offscreen. Critics keep asking how much NEO does on its own.

And the money is enormous. Raising at a reported $10 billion valuation means investors expect a real product soon, not more promises.

The OpenAI Startup Fund led 1X's $23.5 million Series A in 2023, with Tiger Global joining, at a reported $210 million valuation. That was the deal that changed everything.

In January 2024, EQT Ventures led a $100 million Series B, with Samsung NEXT, Sandwater, and Skagerak Capital piling in. By late 2025, reports said 1X was raising up to $1 billion at a roughly $10 billion valuation.

When OpenAI backs your robot, every other AI investor suddenly wants a look.