Insider Brief
- 1X said it now has the capacity to produce up to 10,000 NEO humanoid robots annually as it ramps manufacturing ahead of broader commercial rollout planned for 2026.
- The company said it sold out its first year of planned NEO production within five days of opening preorders last October, and has since opened a 58,000-square-foot vertically integrated factory in Hayward, California, with a second San Carlos facility expected later this year.
- 1X is combining vertically integrated manufacturing, teleoperation-assisted learning and a new video-based world model to improve NEO’s household autonomy, while also pursuing larger-scale deployments through a partnership with EQT targeting up to 10,000 humanoid robots across logistics, manufacturing and healthcare operations between 2026 and 2030.
Humanoid robotics company 1X announced it has the capacity to produce up to 10,000 of its household Neo robots annually.
In a post to its website, X1 said it sold out its first year of planned production for its Neo home robot within five days of opening preorders last October, booking 10,000 units as it ramps manufacturing ahead of initial deliveries planned for 2026.
The company also addressed customers’ questions on when they would get thier Neo.
“In short, it’s coming,” the company wrote. “Some of you will get your Neo this year, some will get them later. We promised the first NEOs would ship in 2026, and we’re keeping that promise. We are working around the clock to get it to you, but want to make sure that what we ship does justice to the humanoid space (this product has been built on the shoulders of giants) and the trust you’ve placed in us.”
To support the expansion, 1X has opened what it describes as a vertically integrated humanoid robot factory in Hayward, California. The 58,000-square-foot facility employs more than 200 workers and is producing key robot components in-house, including motors, batteries, sensors, transmissions and structural parts.
The company said the Hayward factory, combined with a second San Carlos facility expected to come online later this year, gives it the capacity to produce up to 10,000 Neo robots annually, with a longer-term goal of scaling beyond 100,000 units per year by the end of 2027 through increased automation.
1X said it accelerated its manufacturing timeline following stronger-than-expected demand for the humanoid robot, building the Hayward factory in roughly three months after receiving final permits in January.
The company says it is taking a vertically integrated approach to manufacturing rather than relying heavily on outside suppliers, arguing that in-house production gives it greater control over safety, iteration speed and supply-chain stability.
The Neo factory includes assembly lines, automated motor production systems, reliability testing labs, machining operations and final integration areas where robots are fully assembled and tested before shipment.
1X said the next phase of rollout will focus on scaling manufacturing, expanding internal home testing programs and continuing product refinement before wider deployment into consumer households.
Neo was launched as a home humanoid robot designed to assist with everyday household tasks and combined default autonomy for certain tasks with teleoperators to guide it through chores it doesn’t know, with the video then being used for machine learning.
Earlier this year, 1X rolled out an updated world model for its NEO humanoid robot that uses a video-based AI system grounded in physical constraints to translate natural-language prompts into physical actions without task-specific programming. The company said the model combines internet video data, onboard perception and internal dynamics modeling to improve NEO’s ability to operate in unfamiliar environments and perform household tasks ahead of planned early-access deliveries in 2026 through purchase and subscription programs.
Since unveiling the platform, 1X has increasingly positioned the challenge less as a robotics problem and more as a manufacturing and scaling problem as the industry pushes toward commercial humanoid deployment.
In December, the company announced it had formed a strategic partnership with EQT to support deployment of up to 10,000 NEO humanoid robots across EQT portfolio companies between 2026 and 2030, with initial pilots planned in the United States in 2026. The partnership will focus on logistics, warehousing, manufacturing, facility operations and healthcare use cases as 1X expands commercial rollout of its humanoid robots across North America, Europe and Asia.
Image credit: 1X
