- SoftBank is in talks to buy a majority stake in OpenAI-backed humanoid maker 1X Technologies at a $6 billion valuation, according to The Information.
- The deal would give SoftBank a foothold in humanoids to go with its $5.4 billion ABB acquisition and Gravis Robotics investment, rounding out a full-stack robotics strategy spanning industrial arms, construction automation, and now home androids.
- 6 billion looks like a markdown against the $10 billion valuation 1X was chasing less than a year ago, and OpenAI itself reportedly considered buying the company outright before SoftBank came in.
SoftBank is in talks to buy a majority stake in OpenAI-backed humanoid robotics startup 1X Technologies at a valuation of about $6 billion, The Information reported, citing people with knowledge of the deal.
Tech Funding News has tracked SoftBank’s robotics buildout and 1X’s rise since the company’s earliest OpenAI-backed round.
The potential deal would deepen SoftBank’s push into robotics, building on its $5.4 billion acquisition of ABB’s industrial robotics business and its growing portfolio of AI and automation assets.
For 1X, it would bring a major strategic investor to a company that has moved from a small Norwegian robotics startup to one of the most closely watched humanoid players in the world, with OpenAI among its earliest backers.
From Norwegian actuator lab to humanoid contender
Founded in 2014 in Moss, Norway, by roboticist Bernt Øivind Børnich, 1X initially operated as Halodi Robotics, developing safe actuators and full-body control systems for industrial and healthcare robotics.
The company rebranded to 1X Technologies in 2023 and shifted its focus toward androids designed for human environments, a pivot Børnich framed at the time as building machines that “work among people, one by one,” rather than robots that have to slow down to be functional.
The company first attracted major attention when the OpenAI Startup Fund led a $23.5 million Series A2 in March 2023, alongside Tiger Global and a group of Norwegian investors including Sandwater, Alliance Ventures, and Skagerak Capital.
1X has since developed EVE, a wheeled android for commercial environments, and NEO, its bipedal humanoid aimed at domestic use. The company has also expanded its manufacturing footprint, opening a 58,000-square-foot California factory with capacity for 10,000 NEO units in its first year and a target of 100,000 units by the end of 2027.
That trajectory helps explain how a company that was once a relatively early-stage robotics bet could now command a multibillion-dollar valuation.
SoftBank is building beyond robot arms
The reported 1X talks fit neatly into SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son’s broader physical-AI strategy. In October 2025, SoftBank agreed to acquire ABB’s industrial robotics division for approximately $5.4 billion, giving it a major position in industrial robotic arms and automation.
SoftBank has since acquired UK AI-chip company Graphcore and continued putting capital behind robotics and AI infrastructure.
SoftBank has also been active elsewhere in robotics this year. TFN reported in July that the group was exploring a potential acquisition of Gravis Robotics, the ETH Zurich spinout developing autonomous excavators, at a valuation north of $500 million — talks that followed SoftBank’s exit from Boston Dynamics, sold to Hyundai for an estimated $325 million. Those talks ultimately did not result in an acquisition; instead, SoftBank invested $200 million in Gravis at a $1 billion valuation as part of a Series A round in August.
Industrial robots, autonomous machines, humanoids, and the AI infrastructure that trains them are increasingly funded by the same handful of investors, under the same thesis: physical AI, not just software, is where the next decade of returns will come from
OpenAI connection adds another layer
OpenAI has reportedly considered buying it outright. OpenAI and 1X discussed the possibility of the ChatGPT maker acquiring 1X last year, according to The Information, though those talks did not lead to a deal.
TFN has also tracked z OpenAI’s broader robotics portfolio, including Figure AI, which raised more than $1 billion in a Series C at a $39 billion valuation in September 2025, led by Parkway Venture Capital with participation from Brookfield Asset Management, Nvidia, and Intel Capital — up from a $675 million Series B in early 2024, when OpenAI, Nvidia, and Microsoft first backed the company.
That history makes 1X an unusual strategic asset. If the deal closes, SoftBank would gain control of a humanoid company that already has a working relationship with one of the world’s leading AI model companies, and one that OpenAI itself once considered folding into its own operations.
The bigger robotics vision
Humanoid robotics remains a capital-intensive and technically uncertain market, though. The technology still has to move beyond demonstrations into reliable, scalable commercial deployment, and 1X’s own fundraising shortfall is a reminder that investor appetite has limits.
But SoftBank is increasingly positioning itself across the entire robotics stack rather than betting on any single machine.
Rather than signalling a retreat from robotics, the Boston Dynamics exit looks in hindsight like part of a shift toward AI-native robotics businesses and infrastructure — industrial arms through ABB, autonomous construction equipment through Gravis, and now, potentially, humanoids through 1X.
For 1X, a $6 billion price tag would still be a leap from the $23.5 million OpenAI-led round that first put the Norwegian-founded company on the global robotics map. Whether SoftBank’s balance sheet can turn that early enthusiasm into a functioning household product at scale is the question the next few years will answer.
