SoftBank is in talks to buy a majority stake in 1X Technologies, the OpenAI-backed humanoid developer, at a valuation near $6 billion, per The Information via Tech Startups. Terms could change and the talks may not close. OpenAI invested through its Startup Fund in 2023 alongside Tiger Global and Norwegian backers, and the two companies discussed OpenAI acquiring 1X last year.
The valuation history is the story on this cap table. 1X was worth about $820 million in January 2025. Last fall it went out asking $10 billion and seeking $1 billion in capital, and came away with less than half that amount. Now it is discussing a sale of control at roughly $6 billion. That path, an ask the market would not fill followed by a majority-stake conversation at a lower mark, describes a company that could not raise on its own terms and is selling control instead of equity. Six billion is still a large number and well above where it stood eighteen months ago, so this reads as a market correcting an ask rather than repudiating the company.
The word doing the work is majority. A growth round leaves founders and early backers in charge. A majority stake transfers it, which makes this a decision by the existing owners, OpenAI's fund among them, about whether the capital required to reach production is worth giving up the company. Humanoids need years of manufacturing spend before revenue, and SoftBank is one of the few buyers willing to fund that runway.
The operating fact underneath is the one to hold. 1X opened $20,000 pre-orders for Neo, its home robot, in October and reported more than 10,000 in the first week. None have shipped. That is roughly $200 million of expressed demand and zero delivered units, which is the gap the whole sector is being valued across. For SoftBank the logic is portfolio: it bought ABB's robotics arm for $5.4 billion, invested in Gravis Robotics, and adding 1X would give it industrial arms, construction automation, and home androids in one stack.
Bottom Line
A majority stake at $6 billion after a failed $10 billion ask is a control sale, not a growth round. Watch the first Neo deliveries, because this sector is being priced on order books that have not yet become shipments.