1X

1X (formerly Halodi Robotics) is a humanoid-robotics company headquartered in Moss, Norway, with US engineering operations in the Bay Area, founded in 2014 by Bernt Øivind Børnich and a small founding team of Norwegian robotics engineers. Børnich had earlier worked on robotic actuators and bipedal locomotion as a student at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and at Halodi Robotics' early prototype shop, with a founding thesis that bipedal humanoid form factors would become commercially relevant once the underlying actuators became cost-effective and once the AI control systems could handle unstructured human environments. 1X develops the EVE service robot (a wheeled humanoid platform deployed in commercial security and logistics use cases) and the NEO consumer humanoid robot (a bipedal household-tasks robot for which pre-orders opened in 2024). The company is one of the principal humanoid-robotics Insurgents globally alongside Figure AI, Tesla Optimus (Tesla AI), Apptronik, and Agility Robotics, with an explicit consumer-and-household commercial positioning that differentiates 1X from industrial- and warehouse-focused humanoid-robotics peers. As of April 2026, 1X has raised approximately $375 million in cumulative private capital with backing from the OpenAI Startup Fund, EQT Ventures, and Tiger Global.

At a glance

• Founded: 2014 in Moss, Norway, as Halodi Robotics by Bernt Børnich. Rebranded as 1X in 2023, with US headquarters operations established alongside the continuing Norwegian engineering base.
• Status: Private. Series B closed January 2024 at undisclosed valuation in the multi-hundred-million-dollar range.
• Funding: Approximately $375 million cumulative private capital. Series A of $23.5 million (March 2023) led by the OpenAI Startup Fund. Series B of $100 million (January 2024) led by EQT Ventures with continued OpenAI Startup Fund and Tiger Global participation. Subsequent rounds and bridge financing reported through 2025.
• CEO: Bernt Børnich, Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Norwegian engineer; specialist in compliant-actuator design.
• Other notable leadership: Senior product, engineering, and AI leadership across the Norwegian and US operations. The company has reported recruiting from peer humanoid-robotics organizations and from major US AI labs through 2024 to 2025.
• Open weights: No. 1X's robot AI models (the perception, locomotion, and manipulation policies) are closed.
• Flagship products: EVE — the wheeled humanoid service-robot platform. Deployed in commercial security, logistics, and adjacent service-robot use cases. NEO — the bipedal humanoid consumer robot for household tasks. NEO Beta was demonstrated publicly through 2024; NEO Gamma followed in 2025; consumer pre-orders opened with early-access deposits.

Origins

1X was founded as Halodi Robotics in 2014 in Moss, Norway, by Bernt Børnich and a founding team of Norwegian robotics engineers. The early-stage company focused on engineering compliant electric actuators — motors that can deliver force smoothly and safely against unpredictable resistance — under the founding thesis that compliant actuators were the structural bottleneck for humanoid robots that needed to operate around humans without injuring them. Through 2015 to 2020, the company progressed from actuator components to a wheeled humanoid platform (the EVE precursor) and into limited commercial deployments in security, logistics, and adjacent commercial-service applications across Norway and Europe.

The 2022 to 2023 period was the company's structural commercial inflection. The post-ChatGPT generative-AI wave brought AI capabilities (vision-language understanding, language-conditioned policy execution, scene reasoning) that made humanoid robots viable for a wider scope of unstructured tasks than the pre-AI generation could attempt. The March 2023 Series A of $23.5 million, led by the OpenAI Startup Fund, signalled OpenAI's strategic interest in humanoid robotics as an embodied-AI deployment surface. The same period saw the company rebrand from Halodi Robotics to 1X (the new name evoking "one human-equivalent unit") and the move toward a US-headquartered commercial organization with continuing Norwegian engineering operations.

The January 2024 Series B of $100 million was led by EQT Ventures with continued OpenAI Startup Fund and Tiger Global participation. The capital base supported two principal initiatives: scaling EVE deployments in commercial-service applications, and developing NEO, the bipedal humanoid consumer robot. NEO Beta was demonstrated publicly through 2024 with technology-show appearances and online demonstration videos, and NEO Gamma followed in 2025 with consumer pre-orders opening at $20,000 deposits against an undisclosed final price (industry coverage reported expected pricing in the $20,000 to $30,000 range).

The 2024 to 2026 period has continued NEO development alongside EVE commercial expansion. Industry coverage has reported continued recruiting from peer humanoid-robotics organizations and from major US AI labs, and continued development of teleoperation infrastructure that allows human supervisors to assist NEO units during the transition from teleoperated-with-AI-assist to autonomous operation.

Mission and strategy

1X's stated mission is to build a workforce of humanoid robots that can perform useful work in the real world, with explicit positioning toward household and consumer-service applications rather than industrial or warehouse environments. The strategy combines three threads. First, the EVE wheeled humanoid platform for commercial-service applications (security, logistics, retail), providing near-term revenue and continuous deployment data for the AI policy training pipeline. Second, the NEO bipedal consumer humanoid robot, with the household-tasks consumer market as the longer-term target and pre-orders opening as a market-validation mechanism. Third, the in-house AI policy research that combines learning-from-demonstration data (collected from EVE deployments and from human teleoperators) with reinforcement-learning fine-tuning, producing the perception, locomotion, and manipulation policies that the robots run.

The competitive premise is that humanoid robotics is approaching an inflection point where AI capability has caught up to mechanical capability, and that an Insurgent with a decade of mechanical-engineering investment, a strategic-partner AI relationship (OpenAI), and an explicit consumer-product positioning can capture the household-humanoid market that industrial-focused peers are not pursuing.

Models and products

• EVE. The principal commercial product. Wheeled humanoid service robot deployed in commercial security, logistics, and adjacent service-robot use cases. Customers include American Airlines and adjacent commercial-service organizations reported in industry coverage.
• NEO. The bipedal consumer humanoid robot. NEO Beta (2024 demonstrations), NEO Gamma (2025), with consumer pre-orders open against early-access deposits. Targeted for household tasks including laundry, dishes, tidying, and adjacent domestic chores.
• Teleoperation infrastructure. Human-supervised remote operation that allows operators to assist NEO units during deployment, providing both safety supervision and learning-from-demonstration data.
• In-house AI policy research. Perception, locomotion, and manipulation policies trained on EVE and NEO operational data plus teleoperation demonstration data.

Distribution channels combine direct enterprise sales for EVE and consumer pre-orders for NEO.

Benchmarks and standing

1X is not evaluated against horizontal AI benchmarks because the company's commercial output is the robots themselves rather than standalone models. The company's standing is measured through EVE deployment metrics (number of units in commercial service, customer announcements, operating reliability), NEO development progression (demonstration videos, pre-order volumes, shipping timeline), and the quality of public technology demonstrations.

Industry coverage has consistently grouped 1X with Figure AI, Tesla Optimus, Apptronik, and Agility Robotics as the principal humanoid-robotics Insurgents of the post-2022 era. Among that group, 1X's distinguishing positioning is the consumer-and-household commercial orientation (Figure focuses on warehouse and industrial; Tesla Optimus is targeted at Tesla-internal manufacturing first; Apptronik on commercial logistics; Agility Robotics on warehouse applications) and the OpenAI Startup Fund strategic-partner relationship.

Leadership

As of April 2026, 1X's senior leadership includes:

• Bernt Børnich, Founder and Chief Executive Officer.
• Senior product, engineering, and AI leadership across the Norwegian and US operations. Industry coverage has reported recruiting from peer humanoid-robotics organizations and from major US AI labs.

Funding and backers

• Earlier rounds (2014 to 2022): Multiple rounds with European venture investors and angel financing, totaling approximately $20 million.
• Series A (March 2023): $23.5 million led by the OpenAI Startup Fund. The first major US strategic-investor round; established the OpenAI partnership context.
• Series B (January 2024): $100 million led by EQT Ventures with OpenAI Startup Fund and Tiger Global participating.
• Subsequent rounds (2024 to 2025): Industry coverage has reported additional bridge financing and investor expansion. Cumulative capital approximately $375 million as of April 2026.

Industry position

1X occupies a distinctive position among humanoid-robotics Insurgents, with the decade-long mechanical-engineering investment lineage from the original Halodi Robotics period, the OpenAI Startup Fund strategic-partner relationship, the explicit consumer-and-household commercial positioning, and the dual EVE-and-NEO product structure providing both near-term commercial revenue and longer-term consumer-product upside. Industry coverage has consistently characterized 1X as one of the structurally consequential humanoid-robotics Insurgents globally.

The structural risks are two. First, the consumer-humanoid commercial premise depends on NEO reaching reliable autonomous operation at a price-point consumers will pay, and the timeline from teleoperated-with-AI-assist to fully-autonomous operation remains uncertain. Second, the competitive landscape has tightened — Figure AI raised at $39.5 billion in October 2025, Tesla has begun internal Optimus deployment, and Chinese humanoid-robotics organizations (Unitree, Fourier Intelligence, Agibot) have produced credible competing demonstrations at lower price points.

Competitive landscape

• Figure AI. Direct US humanoid-robotics competitor. Substantially larger by valuation; warehouse-and-industrial commercial focus.
• Tesla Optimus (Tesla AI). Tesla's humanoid robot. Internal-manufacturing-first commercial path; longer-term external commercialization.
• Apptronik, Agility Robotics, Sanctuary AI. US humanoid-robotics peers with adjacent commercial-segment focus.
• Unitree, Fourier Intelligence, Agibot. Chinese humanoid-robotics competitors with substantially lower-priced offerings.
• Boston Dynamics. Korean-Hyundai-owned robotics incumbent. Different commercial structure (industrial-and-research focus rather than consumer humanoid).
• Physical Intelligence, Skild AI. Robotics-AI foundation-model peers; potential strategic partners or AI-policy suppliers rather than direct competitors.

Outlook

• NEO consumer launch and shipping timing through 2026 to 2027.
• Continued EVE commercial expansion and customer disclosures.
• Potential additional fundraising at higher valuations.
• The competitive dynamic with Figure AI, Tesla Optimus, and the broader humanoid-robotics cohort.
• The OpenAI Startup Fund strategic-partner relationship and any deeper integration with OpenAI's foundation-model and embodied-AI research.

Sources

• 1X official site. Product reference.
• Bernt Børnich LinkedIn. Founder profile.
• OpenAI Startup Fund Series A announcement. March 2023 Series A reference.
• EQT Ventures Series B announcement. January 2024 Series B reference.