1X has opened a new 58,000-square-foot factory in Hayward, California, as the Norwegian tech group pushes to build humanoids at consumer scale. The plant is designed to produce 10,000 robots in its first year, with shipments of the Neo humanoid tipped to begin by the end of this year.
The company said Neo is available for pre-order at $20,000 and is being pitched as a robot that can help with household chores such as laundry, folding clothes and tidying up. 1X said it hopes to become one of the first humanoid makers to build robots for consumers at scale, and it plans to produce 100,000 robots by the end of 2027.
The opening gives 1X a more concrete foothold in a race that is still dominated by promise more than output. The source says the company, backed by OpenAI, is vertically integrating manufacturing by making parts in-house, including motors, electronics and batteries, while also planning to open a larger manufacturing facility in San Carlos, California.
That push lands as Tesla said preparations for its first large-scale Optimus factory will begin shortly in Q2, with the first-generation production line to be located at its Fremont, California plant. Tesla said the Fremont line could potentially produce 1 million robots per year, a figure that underscores how quickly the humanoid market is moving from prototype talk to industrial ambition.
The contrast is sharp. China is currently leading the humanoid robot market through companies such as Unitree and Agibot, but 1X and Tesla are signaling that the next phase will be defined not by demos, but by whether factories can deliver machines in volume and at prices ordinary buyers might one day consider. The real test now is whether the first shipments, the Fremont conversion and the new capacity in California arrive on schedule, because the industry’s next milestone will be measured in units, not claims.
