NEO: a home humanoid pre-sold amid a teleoperation debate

A humanoid that started in Norway and moved to Silicon Valley

NEO is a home humanoid made by 1X Technologies. Norwegian roboticist Bernt Børnich founded the company as Halodi Robotics in 2014; it is now headquartered in Palo Alto, California. In 2023 it raised a round of over $23 million led by OpenAI. NEO is a human-shaped robot wrapped in fabric. It stands 5 ft 6 in tall, weighs 66 lb and runs about four hours on a battery. The company says it operates at 22 dB.

$20,000 pre-orders, and 10,000 units in five days

1X opened NEO pre-orders in October 2025. For $20,000 buyers got priority delivery in 2026; a $499 monthly subscription was also offered. The deposit was $200. In April 2026, opening a factory in Hayward, California, with capacity for 10,000 units a year, 1X said that after launching on 28 October it "sold out its entire first-year production capacity (over 10,000 units)" within five days. The company’s About page says NEO entered early-access customers’ homes in 2026. A Notebookcheck article updated in October 2026, however, still expected the first US customers to receive theirs by the end of the year.

A remote operator who can see inside your home

The main controversy after launch was teleoperation. In a demonstration tried by a Wall Street Journal reporter, NEO was operated remotely by a person. 1X’s Expert Mode lets company staff steer NEO through a VR headset and see inside the home. 1X says it protects privacy with user consent, indicator lights and blurring of people. Tom’s Guide called teleoperation NEO’s "one huge problem". CEO Børnich has said that data from early adopters is needed for the robot to work on its own.

A promise sold before the robot

NEO is a product whose pre-order numbers arrived before any record of use in homes. Like Jibo and Keecker, which built up expectations through crowdfunding and then shipped late, the gap between promise and reality could grow long. And because part of its work is done by remote operators, it resembles Jibo, whose functions lived on company servers.

How should users be able to tell when a person, not the robot, is doing the work?

What we haven’t confirmed

• How many units have actually been delivered to homes, and when
• Whether the 10,000+ pre-order figure has been independently confirmed (company claim)
• The launch date (the Business Wire release URL says 27 October; the company and its video say 28 October)
• How much household work it does on its own versus by teleoperation