Humanoid Robots in Every Home? Robotics CEOs Predict a Near Future Shift

While tech giants chase factory automation, one company is betting everything on bringing humanoid robots directly into your living room. 1X Technologies CEO Bernt Bornich reveals their audacious plan to deploy thousands of Neo Gamma robots in homes by 2026.

Key Takeaways

• 1X Technologies prioritizes home deployment over industrial applications to maximize AI learning diversity and achieve consumer-scale manufacturing
• Neo Gamma robots weigh 66 pounds, lift 150 pounds, run for 4 hours, and feature 22 degrees of freedom per hand
• The company targets a $30,000 purchase price or $300 monthly lease, making humanoid robots accessible to mainstream consumers
• Manufacturing will scale from hundreds today to 20,000+ annual production by end of 2026, following iPhone-like growth trajectory
• Built-in privacy controls require user approval before any human operators can access robot data or provide teleoperation assistance
• 1X develops proprietary AI models and world simulators in-house rather than partnering with existing tech giants
• The company's tendon-driven design eliminates gears through custom motors delivering 5.5x world record torque density

Home-First Strategy Disrupts Industry Orthodoxy

Most humanoid robot companies target factories first. 1X Technologies deliberately chose the opposite path. Bornich explains their reasoning centers on two fundamental advantages: consumer hardware scaling and intelligence through diversity.

• Consumer hardware reaches billion-unit scale faster than industrial applications, citing iPhone's trajectory from zero to over a billion devices in roughly a decade
• Factory environments create learning plateaus after 20-40 hours because robots perform identical tasks repeatedly without encountering new challenges or scenarios
• Home environments provide unlimited learning diversity through varied tasks, social interactions, and unpredictable situations that don't exist in controlled industrial settings
• Previous generation robot "Eve" deployed in security and logistics confirmed learning limitations, with robots plateauing between 20-40 hours depending on task complexity
• Diversity drives intelligence across all AI domains, from language models to computer vision, making varied home environments essential for developing general intelligence
• Industrial automation already has specialized solutions for specific tasks, while homes require the generalist capabilities that justify humanoid form factors

The company views robotics as fundamentally serving artificial general intelligence (AGI) development rather than simply replacing human labor in controlled environments. "We see us more as a company really running towards AGI and how can we come there as fast as possible," Bornich states.

Technical Specifications Rival Athletic Humans

Neo Gamma's physical capabilities match or exceed human performance in key metrics while maintaining safety and manufacturability. The robot stands 5'4" tall and achieves remarkable power-to-weight ratios through revolutionary motor design.

• Weighs 66 pounds yet lifts 150 pounds, achieving the weight-to-strength ratio of an athletic human through proprietary tendon-driven actuators
• Carries 50 pounds while walking, demonstrated during facility tours where robots transported bags and performed household tasks
• Operates completely silently, a crucial requirement Bornich discovered only after deploying robots in actual homes where noise becomes unbearable after multiple days
• Features 22 degrees of freedom per hand, matching human finger dexterity and enabling complex manipulation tasks like in-hand object rotation
• Includes three neck joints for proper facial expression and seven arm joints per side, totaling significantly more articulation than typical 26-joint competitor designs
• Battery life extends 4 hours with 30-minute rapid charging, though real-world usage involves frequent micro-breaks that eliminate charging concerns in practice

The revolutionary motor technology eliminates traditional gears entirely. Custom motors deliver 5.5 times the world record torque density, enabling direct tendon actuation that mimics human muscle systems while remaining lightweight and affordable to manufacture.

In-House AI Development Challenges Tech Giants

Unlike competitors partnering with OpenAI or Google, 1X Technologies builds their entire AI stack internally. Their approach prioritizes embodied intelligence over language-first systems, arguing that spatial and temporal understanding forms the core of true intelligence.

• World models serve as the foundation, generating predicted outcomes for robot actions including visual, tactile, and force feedback in simulated environments
• Robots train in Matrix-like simulations where they believe they're in the real world, enabling automated safety testing and capability evaluation before deployment
• Neural networks run entirely on-robot for low-latency control, operating at 25 hertz for motor control and 5-10 hertz for higher-level decision making
• Vision processing requires massive bandwidth that wouldn't survive transmission to remote servers, necessitating local compute near the cameras
• Interactive learning loops provide advantages impossible with internet-only training, allowing robots to form hypotheses, test actions, and observe results directly
• Current models use relatively small parameter counts compared to large language models due to real-time processing constraints and on-device inference requirements

Bornich emphasizes that intelligence doesn't begin with language: "Language is this generative artificial construct that we have come up with and it's incredible... but it's not the core of your intelligence." Their embodied approach aims to develop spatial-temporal understanding first, then add language capabilities.

Manufacturing Revolution Targets iPhone-Scale Production

1X Technologies plans aggressive manufacturing scaling that mirrors successful consumer electronics trajectories. Their roadmap envisions exponential growth while addressing fundamental supply chain constraints that could limit the entire industry.

• Current production: hundreds of robots across multiple iterations, with significant learning from previous Eve generation deployed in 2022-2023
• 2026 factory target: 20,000+ annual run rate requiring approximately 2,000 robots monthly at peak production
• Next facility planned for order-of-magnitude increase, though constrained by basic material availability including aluminum refinement capacity
• Manufacturing complexity exceeds iPhones due to hundreds of components versus dozens, requiring 5x more assembly labor per unit
• Automation becomes essential at scale: "You're not going to get there without really using robots for labor" when reaching iPhone-like volumes
• Part count optimization targets refrigerator-level complexity (few hundred parts) rather than automotive levels (50,000 parts) through elegant engineering design

The company faces unique supply chain challenges. Unlike software scaling, physical robots require mining, refinement, and manufacturing capacity that doesn't exist at projected volumes. "You run out of some basic stuff like aluminium" when attempting to scale humanoid production to billions of units.

Privacy and Safety Framework Addresses Home Deployment

Deploying robots in private homes requires unprecedented privacy protections and safety guarantees. 1X Technologies developed comprehensive frameworks addressing both data security and physical safety concerns.

• No human employees can access robot data without explicit user approval and decryption key sharing for specific time windows
• 24-hour training delay allows users to delete sensitive data before it enters machine learning models permanently
• Teleoperation requires pre-approved operator lists with visual robot indicators when humans take control, similar to inviting service workers into homes
• Two operational modes: "best effort autonomy" for experimental learning and "task scheduling" for reliable completion using teleoperation backup
• Intrinsic safety design ensures accidental impacts cause pain but not severe injury, achieved through compliant tendon systems and lightweight construction
• Dangerous object restrictions initially prohibit handling boiling water, sharp tools, and other hazardous items until AI reliability improves significantly

Privacy transparency becomes critical for early adopters who trade some privacy for access to cutting-edge technology. "We are kind of trading a bit on privacy versus being an early adopter because without the data we can't make the product better," Bornich acknowledges.

Global Competition and Silicon Valley Advantage

The humanoid robotics race spans multiple continents, with China leading in manufacturing ecosystem development while Silicon Valley provides unique scaling advantages. Bornich offers nuanced perspectives on competing in this global landscape.

• Chinese ecosystem enables incredibly fast hardware iteration through concentrated supplier networks, street-corner component sourcing, and embedded manufacturing expertise
• Process knowledge advantages in China include decades of specialized manufacturing experience that can't be replicated quickly elsewhere
• Top-down government incentives create dedicated robot cities and specialized industrial zones with streamlined permitting and focused capital allocation
• Silicon Valley talent density becomes crucial when transitioning from research to billion-unit scaling, providing access to product development and ecosystem expertise
• US hardware funding remains dysfunctional with venture capital avoiding physical products, forcing companies to bootstrap through international investment
• Free economic zones could accelerate US hardware development by reducing regulatory friction and permitting delays that currently handicap physical product companies

The company relocated from Norway to Silicon Valley specifically for scaling expertise: "If you want to scale something, you have to come here." While talent exists globally, the Bay Area concentrates the specific knowledge needed for consumer hardware scaling.

Future Vision: Abundance Through Automated Labor

Bornich envisions humanoid robots enabling unprecedented abundance while solving humanity's greatest scientific challenges. Their long-term vision extends far beyond household chores to fundamental transformation of human civilization.

• True abundance combines unlimited intelligence with unlimited labor capacity, requiring both AI advancement and physical world manipulation capabilities
• Scientific research acceleration becomes possible through robotic construction of massive particle accelerators, biotech laboratories, and experimental facilities
• Sustainable manufacturing emerges when abundance eliminates cost-cutting that currently compromises environmental responsibility
• Space deployment advantages include lightweight designs ideal for expensive orbital missions and teleoperation capabilities for zero-latency control from nearby human operators
• Co-invention philosophy emphasizes human-machine collaboration rather than AI replacement, avoiding dystopian scenarios where humans become mere experiment subjects
• 10 billion humanoids by 2040 represents achievable scaling comparable to automotive or smartphone adoption, though constrained by chip fabrication and rare earth availability

The ultimate goal transcends current automation: robots building robots, constructing data centers, and expanding civilization's physical infrastructure. "How do we solve the remaining really hard problems in science? This is not going to happen without humanoids."

1X Technologies positions humanoid robots as the critical bridge between digital intelligence and physical abundance. Their home-first strategy, proprietary AI development, and aggressive manufacturing scaling could determine whether this vision becomes reality within the current decade.