It was sold to us as the great promise of the home of tomorrow: NEO, the humanoid robot (a machine in human shape, two arms, two legs) from the young Norwegian firm 1X. A companion meant to fold the laundry, tidy the kitchen and answer the door, all for an advertised price of 20,000 dollars — roughly the cost of a small new car, according to the specialist website TechCrunch.

Except that NEO isn't coming to your living room. It's off to the factory.

From the living room to the warehouse: a quiet change of course

On 11 December 2025, 1X announced a partnership with EQT, an investment fund, to deploy its NEO robots in the industrial world: manufacturing floors, warehouses, logistics. Again according to TechCrunch, the deal will put these robots to work for the companies owned by EQT, and it runs between 2026 and 2030.

The press release talks of a strategic partnership. The wording is flattering, but it papers over an awkward detail: the robot dreamt up for the home is being sent off to work on the production line. And these are two opposite worlds. A domestic robot has to be gentle, safe, able to share the house with children and a cat. A factory robot has to shift loads and keep up the pace. Designing one is not designing the other.

When a company shunts its flagship product from one market to another like this, it isn't always a conquest. It can be an admission: the original market — here, the home — isn't ready to buy just yet. And that is exactly what's at stake in this announcement.

Up to 10,000 robots... but for which customers?

The deal, according to TechCrunch, covers the deployment of up to 10,000 NEO robots. It's an impressive figure. But one question is worth asking: who exactly are these robots going to be sold to?

The answer is telling. EQT has more than 300 companies in its portfolio — that is, firms the fund owns or holds a stake in. And it is precisely these companies that are eligible to receive 1X's robots. In other words, the fund that bankrolls 1X is also supplying its first customers.

To put it plainly: it's a bit as if the banker lending you the money to open a bakery also happened to own the 300 cafés in the neighbourhood, and told them to order their croissants from you. You have customers, yes. But have they come to you because your product is the best, or because the word came down from above?

Real demand, or manufactured demand?

This is the heart of the matter. An order book propped up by the companies of a single fund is not quite the same thing as a market scrambling to buy. In the first case, the demand is partly arranged by the investor. In the second, it comes from the field.

That doesn't mean the robots won't work, or that the partnership is a bad deal. Having a full-scale testing ground, with 300 potential clients, is a genuine asset for a young company. But it changes how you read the announcement. It isn't the market is clamouring for our robots. It's more like our main financial backer is opening the doors of its own companies to us.

And what about the promise of the 20,000-dollar robot?

That leaves the big question for the public: what becomes of the affordable home robot, the one we were meant to find in our kitchens? For now, the signal being sent is not reassuring for households in a hurry. When a company reroutes its star product towards industry, it's usually because the home, for its part, isn't paying yet.

The available facts, drawn from a single secondary source, call for caution: they describe an industrial deal, not the official scrapping of the home project. 1X hasn't said it is giving up on the living room. But the timetable speaks for itself: before NEO folds your laundry, it will first be stacking boxes in warehouses that belong, for the most part, to the same circle of investors.

The promise of the 20,000-dollar domestic companion isn't dead. It is, for the moment, on hold. And that, perhaps, is the real message of this announcement.