1X targets 50,000 NEO shipments in 2027 — and says keeping them out of the returns pile is the real test

1X CEO Bernt Børnich says the company aims to ship 50,000 NEO humanoid robots in 2027, using its Hayward, California factory and a second, larger facility being built out in San Carlos. Speaking on the Relentless podcast with Ti Morse, published September 18, 2026 and reported by Humanoids Daily on September 19, he said the limiting factor is not output but reliability: “The real gating item here is really kind of like not just shipping 50,000 units, but ensuring that you don’t get them back.”

Why it matters: 50,000 units would be several times the roughly 7,000 humanoids the International Federation of Robotics counted as sold worldwide in 2025 for industrial and professional use — and most of NEO’s volume is meant for homes, where a failed unit comes back as a return rather than a service ticket.

How will 1X build 50,000 NEO robots?

According to Humanoids Daily, Børnich put the Hayward factory’s fully ramped annual capacity at about 10,000 units, and said it is not yet at full production in 2026. The San Carlos site would add 100,000 units of annual capacity, most of it coming online late next year. On those numbers, hitting 50,000 in 2027 depends on San Carlos ramping well before year-end.

1X opened the Hayward plant on April 30, 2026, describing it as a 58,000-square-foot, vertically integrated factory that makes motors, batteries and sensors in-house. The company said at the time it had sold out its first-year production of more than 10,000 units within five days of NEO’s October 2025 launch; that figure is company-reported. Børnich also claimed a full-system CAD change can go from design to a revised robot walking off the line in about four weeks.

Why does 1X say returns are the real test?

Børnich’s point is that scale is gated by quality: a home robot that fails in the field gets sent back. Humanoid Guide’s summary of the interview says early deployments will get extensive field service and updates. The volume will be split across home deployments, enterprise applications and the NEO developer platform, with some units going to more structured enterprise settings.

The deployed fleet is also 1X’s data strategy. Børnich argued that the scarce input for training is variety of environments, not raw volume: “In reality, you’re almost never data bound. You’re diversity bound.” Placing robots in many different homes and workplaces is how 1X intends to get that variety.

How much does NEO cost?

1X sells NEO for $20,000 as an early-access purchase or $499 a month on subscription, with first US consumer deliveries planned for 2026. Our June report on 1X’s home-first strategy covers how that positioning differs from rivals aimed at factories and warehouses.

The 2027 number is a target, not an order book. The data points to watch are Hayward’s actual 2026 output and when San Carlos starts producing.