Masayoshi Son is circling another multibillion-dollar AI bet as SoftBank Group Corp. (OTC:SFTBY) is reportedly in talks to buy a majority stake in 1X Technologies, the OpenAI-backed humanoid robot maker, at a valuation of roughly $6 billion.
The negotiations, first reported by The Information, remain ongoing and could still fall apart. SoftBank declined to comment.
The eye-catching part is what Son may be valuing at $6 billion: a company whose flagship NEO robot has yet to reach a customer, but which is already taking paid reservations while Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) works toward a consumer Optimus launch.
Traders on Polymarket, meanwhile, give Tesla just a 3% chance of making Optimus available for purchase or paid preorder by the end of 2026.
From $375 Million to $6 Billion
1X’s valuation has exploded in just three years.
When SoftBank first discussed backing the company in 2023, 1X was seeking funding at a $375 million pre-money valuation. By January 2025, a financing valued it at roughly $820 million.
Later that year, 1X went looking for as much as $1 billion at a $10 billion valuation, though it ultimately raised less than half of what it sought.
Now SoftBank is reportedly circling again, this time at roughly $6 billion.
That would still value 1X at more than seven times its early-2025 price.
What SoftBank Would Be Buying
NEO is a humanoid designed mainly for household chores, priced at $20,000 outright or $499 per month.
1X says it booked its entire first-year production capacity of 10,000 units within five days. U.S. deliveries are due to begin in 2026 from its new California manufacturing base.
Early units won’t be fully autonomous, however. 1X says harder tasks may still require remote assistance from one of its human “Experts.”
The OpenAI Connection Runs Deep
OpenAI’s Startup Fund led a $23.5 million funding round for 1X in 2023, and OpenAI itself reportedly explored acquiring the company outright in 2025 before those talks collapsed.
Now SoftBank, one of OpenAI’s largest financial backers, may take control instead. Its cumulative investment in OpenAI is expected to reach $64.6 billion, representing roughly a 13% stake.
1X Gets a Head Start on Tesla
Elon Musk has said consumer Optimus sales could begin by the end of 2027, but Tesla’s timetable has already slipped more than once.
Polymarket traders see little chance of a consumer launch this year. 1X, by contrast, is already taking paid reservations for NEO, even though customer deliveries have yet to begin.
Tesla is planning on a vastly larger scale. Its first Optimus production line is designed for eventual capacity of 1 million robots a year. 1X says its current facilities can produce up to 10,000 NEOs annually, with plans to surpass 100,000 by the end of 2027.
For now, 1X may be tiny next to Tesla, but it has beaten Musk to one important milestone: the order button.
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