1X Opens Hayward NEO Factory Aimed at 10,000 Home Robots a Year
1X Technologies has done the unglamorous thing humanoid startups keep promising: stand up a factory. On April 30, 2026 the company walked through its NEO Factory in Hayward, California — billed as America’s first vertically integrated high-volume humanoid robot plant — and said full-scale production is underway.
The Plant, in Numbers
From 1X’s own factory write-up:
- 58,000 sq ft facility in Hayward
- 200+ employees on staff
- Stood up in about three months after final permits in January
- Initial capacity: up to 10,000 NEOs per year
- Longer goal: 100,000+ units annually by end of 2027, with a San Carlos site also coming online
- Vertical integration: motors, batteries, structures, transmissions, soft goods, sensors — built in-house where possible
- 17,000 motors manufactured since production started (Revo2 tendon actuators)
- Battery line designed for 10,000 packs/year, welding every 500 ms
- Each NEO carries a NEO Cortex with NVIDIA Jetson Thor
- Current line output prioritizes internal home testing; customer deliveries still promised for 2026
CEO Bernt Børnich framed the preorder shock: after an October 28 launch, 1X says it booked the next year’s capacity — 10,000 NEOs — in five days.
What NEO Costs
On the order page, pricing is public and simple:
- $20,000 Early Access ownership (3-year warranty, premium support, priority delivery)
- $499/month subscription (starter productivity package, standard delivery)
- $200 refundable deposit to start
- U.S. deliveries start 2026
Hardware claims on the same page include roughly 5’6” height, 66 lb weight, 4-hour runtime on an 842 Wh pack, walk/run speeds up to 1.4 / 6.2 m/s, and a soft lattice body aimed at home safety.
Robots Building Robots
1X says NEOs already help on the floor — stocking parts and basic logistics — while learning via the company’s world model. That is aspirational factory folklore until the ratios get public, but it is directionally interesting: the product is supposed to become part of its own supply chain.
A Human’s Take
Factories are where humanoid hype meets torque wrenches. 1X putting metal, motors, and a price tag in the same place is more important than another parkour clip. Keep an eye on how many customer units leave Hayward in 2026 versus how many stay in employee houses for “testing.” Shipping is the product now.