Bernt Øyvind Børnich

Overview

Bernt Øyvind Børnich is the CEO of 1X Technologies. The company's official timeline traces its beginnings to 2014, when Børnich founded it as Halodi Robotics ^[1]. NVIDIA's release for GR00T N1 also identifies Børnich as CEO of 1X Technologies ^[3]. These two public descriptions place him at the head of a robotics company whose history is tied to his founding role.

Founding goal

According to 1X, Børnich founded the company to build general-purpose robots that can coexist with humans ^[1]. In robotics, “general-purpose” describes a machine intended to handle a range of tasks rather than one fixed job, while “coexist with humans” points to operation in shared spaces where people are present. The stated goal therefore joins two ideas: broad usefulness and human-facing safety. 1X presents this goal as the reason the company was started ^[1].

Revo1 and tendon-inspired actuation

1X said it developed the Revo1 drive servo motor in 2018, inspired by human tendon actuation ^[1]. A servo motor is a motor packaged with feedback and control so that it can move to a commanded position or force. Tendon actuation in biology transmits force from muscle to bone through tendons; a robotic design inspired by it can organize force transmission in a way that resembles that arrangement. The Revo1 is the concrete hardware item that 1X links to this period and to this biological analogy ^[1].

Factory humanoids

1X said that in 2022 it deployed wheeled factory humanoids into customer facilities globally ^[1]. A wheeled humanoid combines a humanoid upper body with a wheeled base, a form that can work in factory settings without needing to walk on legs. The company's statement covers both the form—wheeled factory humanoids—and the setting: customer facilities in multiple locations ^[1]. This deployment is part of the public timeline that 1X uses to describe its progress.

Safety priority

In the NEO Beta announcement, 1X quoted Børnich saying that the company's priority is safety ^[2]. The statement is short, but it sets a public priority for a company whose founding goal is robots that can coexist with humans ^[1]. Safety in that context concerns how a robot behaves around people: how it controls motion, how it handles errors, and how it is deployed in shared environments. Børnich's quoted line makes safety the stated first-order concern in the NEO Beta announcement ^[2].

GR00T N1 on NEO Gamma

NVIDIA's GR00T N1 release identified Børnich as CEO of 1X Technologies ^[3]. The same release quoted him saying that with a minimal amount of post-training data, 1X was able to fully deploy GR00T N1 on NEO Gamma ^[3]. Post-training is the stage after a model's initial training, when additional data is used to adapt the model to a particular task or robot. In Børnich's description, the amount of that additional data was small, and the result was a full deployment on NEO Gamma ^[3]. The quote connects 1X's humanoid platform with NVIDIA's GR00T N1 release.

Public profile

The public record from 1X and NVIDIA gives a consistent outline. Børnich founded the company in 2014 under the Halodi Robotics name and is identified as its CEO ^[1][3]. 1X ties the company to a founding goal of general-purpose robots that coexist with humans, to the Revo1 servo motor in 2018, and to wheeled factory humanoid deployments in customer facilities in 2022 ^[1]. Børnich's quoted comments in the NEO Beta announcement and in NVIDIA's GR00T N1 release emphasize safety and deployment ^[2][3]. Together, these items describe a CEO whose public statements and company timeline center on building robots for use alongside people and putting them into real settings.