1X NEO Beta

What NEO Beta is

1X unveiled NEO Beta on 30 August 2024 in an announcement datelined San Francisco Bay, California, and Moss, Norway. It was a prototype of the company’s bipedal humanoid designed for home use.^[1] Wikipedia records the same date as when the first version of NEO was introduced under the NEO Beta name.^[5]

1X framed the launch as a major milestone in its transition from conceptual development to bringing humanoid robots into consumer households.^[1] The company described NEO Beta as moving beyond traditional, stiff robots toward bio-inspired designs that can safely work among people.^[1]

Design and capabilities

1X said NEO Beta was designed to be produced at scale at its factory in Moss, Norway.^[1][2] At launch, media reports described the prototype’s size and motion. CLS reported it as 5 feet 5 inches (about 1.65 m) tall and 30 kg in weight, walking at 2.5 mph (1.12 m/s) and running at 7.5 mph (3.35 m/s). The same report listed 20 degrees of freedom in its hands, the ability to lift 70 kg, a carry capacity of up to 20 kg, and a runtime of 2 to 4 hours.^[3] Tech Startups reported a height of 5 feet 5 inches and a weight of 66 pounds, with walking at 2.5 mph and running at 7.5 mph, a 44-pound carry capacity, and 2 to 4 hours of operation on a single charge.^[4]

CLS also reported that NEO Beta did not rely on conventional rigid actuators. Instead, it used a bio-inspired structure resembling human muscle tissue, with an aluminium core covered by a soft layer. According to that report, a remote human operator could take over its vision and movement if the user needed help.^[3]

Home trials and safety

CEO Bernt Børnich said, “Our priority is safety,” and said that in 2024 1X was deploying a limited number of NEO units in selected homes for research and development purposes.^[1] The company tied those in-home units to research and development.^[1]

In 1X’s demonstration video, NEO Beta was shown handing a backpack to a woman in loungewear, moving a glass from a dishwasher to a cupboard, and passing an egg to someone cooking.^[2] The scenes focused on household tasks such as carrying, storage and kitchen help.^[2]

Company context and place in line

上海证券报·中国证券网 reported that 1X had raised US$23.5 million in a March 2023 Series A2 round led by the OpenAI Startup Fund and US$100 million in a January 2024 Series B led by EQT Ventures.^[2] The NEO Beta announcement came after both rounds.^[2]

In 1X’s 28 October 2025 NEO launch release, the company named NEO Beta as one of the prior models that NEO succeeds.^[6] This places NEO Beta in the sequence of NEO versions rather than as an isolated prototype.^[6]

For 1X, NEO Beta combined a home-use target, bio-inspired design, safety messaging, limited in-home R&D deployments and plans for production in Moss.^[1][2] Its importance for the company lay in connecting a public prototype launch with a stated path to household testing and manufacturing.^[1][2] Through this version, 1X publicly moved its humanoid work from concept development toward household use.^[1]