Newsletter

1X’s robot butler is now $499 a month

PLUS: Tesla prepares for Optimus V3 mass production and Foxconn's robots start building AI servers

Welcome back to your Robot Briefing

Robotics startup 1X just opened pre-orders for its home assistant robot, NEO, offering it for a $499 monthly subscription. The humanoid is designed to take over your household chores, with shipments beginning in 2026.

The robot learns by having remote humans guide it through complex tasks. This approach raises a key question: are consumers ready to welcome a teleoperated device into their private lives to accelerate the path to full autonomy?

In today’s Robot update:

1X’s home robot is now available for pre-order

Tesla prepares for Optimus V3 mass production

Foxconn’s robots start building AI servers

Cruise founder's new venture eyes $4B valuation

News

Your Robot Butler Is Ready

Snapshot: Robotics startup 1X has officially opened pre-orders for NEO, a humanoid robot designed to handle your household chores, with shipments beginning in 2026 for $20,000 or a $499/month subscription.

Breakdown:

NEO is built with a home-friendly design , standing 5'6" tall with a soft, 66-pound body. It operates more quietly than a refrigerator and runs for up to four hours on a single charge, with the ability to carry 55 pounds.

You interact with NEO through conversational commands thanks to its built-in large language model. It can understand context, remember past interactions, and learn your preferences over time to offer personalized assistance.

The robot relies on a human-in-the-loop model to learn. For complex tasks, a remote human operator guides NEO, collecting the real-world data needed to improve its autonomy over time.

Takeaway: 1X’s strategy gets a useful robot into homes now by using teleoperation as a bridge to full autonomy. The approach could dramatically speed up development, but its success will depend on consumer comfort with the privacy implications.

News

Tesla's Robot Factory

Snapshot: Reports of a massive component order from China, paired with new videos of the Optimus V3 showing off real-time balance, signal that Tesla is gearing up for mass production as early as next year.

Breakdown:

A large order of linear actuators from an existing supplier suggests Tesla is finalizing its industrial design and moving beyond one-off prototypes.

Recent video demonstrations showcase the robot's improved autonomous control , as it reacts to pushes and maintains balance in real time without remote assistance or editing tricks.

Elon Musk has hinted at an ambitious target price of around $20,000 to $30,000 per unit, aiming to make the robot cheaper than a car.

Takeaway: Tesla's push from R&D to production turns up the heat on a field already crowded with focused competitors. This move signals that humanoid robots are quickly shifting from futuristic concepts to tangible, commercial products ready for the production line.

News

The Robots Building The Robots

Snapshot: Manufacturing giant Foxconn announced it will deploy NVIDIA-powered humanoid robots on the production lines of its new Houston factory, which is being built specifically to assemble AI servers.

Breakdown:

These robots will handle tasks far beyond simple logistics, including delicate component assembly, path planning, and performing operational checks to improve quality control .

Unlike traditional fixed robotic arms, these humanoids, powered by NVIDIA's Isaac GR00T platform, can be quickly reprogrammed with software for new tasks, dramatically increasing production flexibility and reducing retooling downtime.

Before ever touching the factory floor, the robots are trained and optimized within a digital twin simulation of the plant, allowing Foxconn to perfect workflows and ensure safety in a virtual environment.

Takeaway: This marks a significant step toward automating complex, high-precision manufacturing. The initiative creates a fascinating feedback loop where advanced robots are now building the very AI hardware that will power the next wave of intelligent systems.

News

The $4 Billion Home Bot Bet

Snapshot: Cruise founder Kyle Vogt’s new stealth venture, The Bot Company, is in talks to raise $250 million at a valuation exceeding $4 billion to build a non-humanoid robot for home chores.

Breakdown:

Co-founded with former Tesla AI lead Paril Jain, the company is still pre-product and pre-revenue , yet its valuation is set to double from an earlier round this year.

The company promises to build "affordable robots" that handle dull household tasks, signaling a clear focus on the consumer market over industrial applications.

The massive valuation reflects intense investor hype in home robotics, positioning the recently launched venture to compete with emerging players like Figure and 1X's NEO.

Takeaway: This huge bet on a pre-product company shows the immense market appetite for a practical home robotics solution. It signals that the race to build the first truly useful consumer robot is heating up, with serious capital backing multiple visions.

The Shortlist

Booster unveiled its K1 humanoid, an entry-level platform for developers with a limited-time price of $4,999 to significantly lower the barrier for embodied intelligence development.

iRobot warned it may be forced to seek bankruptcy protection after talks with its last potential buyer collapsed.

Beijing's demonstrated how it taught a 35kg Unitree G1 humanoid to tow a 1.4-ton car across a parking lot, showcasing the robot's advanced balance and strength.

UNIST built a tiny artificial muscle that can switch from soft to rigid and lift approximately 4,000 times its own weight, a new strength-to-weight record for soft actuators.