SoftBank eyes $6B 1X deal as humanoid robot race accelerates

SoftBank Group has entered into negotiations with humanoid robot manufacturer 1X Technologies regarding a proposed acquisition of the latter that may be conducted at an approximately $6 billion valuation, according to the report from The Information issued on August 26, 2026, quoting its sources. If the agreement is confirmed, it would indicate that the Japanese firm is likely to reinforce its operations in the field of physical AI, where investments are shifting increasingly from software to products that can perform actions in the real world.

Timing plays a vital role. As investments begin to flow heavily into robots capable of walking, manipulating objects, and adapting to their environment, the past year has seen the emergence of SoftBank as a major player within this major revolution. Furthermore, acquiring a robotics company supported by OpenAI would add a new dimension to the relationship between two major players in the field of embodied intelligence.

Why the talks land at a hot moment for humanoids

The talks are taking place at a time when there is a sharp increase in humanoid deliveries. As reported on August 20, 2026, by Counterpoint Research, total shipments of humanoids this year already reached more than 22,000, which is an almost 300 percent year-to-year increase, and it is possible that the total number of humanoids shipped this year surpasses 50,000.

H1 2025 is an implied estimate based on Counterpoint’s statement that H1 2026 shipments exceeded 22,000 and grew nearly 300% year over year; the research firm did not separately disclose an exact H1 2025 total in its August 20 release.

The statistics indicate the level of market concentration. Two players alone, AGIBOT and Unitree, made up almost 75% of total shipments in the first half of the year, and companies from China claimed all top five spots.

1X is pursuing a new path to success. Launched in Moss, Norway, and founded in May 2014 as Halodi Robotics, the company is now located in Palo Alto, aiming to serve domestic customers with its Neo robot rather than other businesses in factories. A report from Contrary Research said that 1X considers home environments as the ideal training venue for general-purpose embodied intelligence.

Contrary estimates the total amount of funding received by the company to be $136.5 million, while the company revealed it obtained $100 million under Series B financing from investors on 13 January 2024. This makes the reported valuation at $6 billion a remarkable increase.

While the numbers are not comparable—one signals venture funding, another suggested valuation, another acquisition price and another fair value of equity in a venture—they provide an idea of the magnitude of SoftBank’s investments in AI and robotics.

Where 1X and OpenAI already overlap

OpenAI is already part of the 1X narrative. On March 23, 2023, the startup revealed a $23.5 million Series A2 financing round headed by the OpenAI Startup Fund, as well as Tiger Global and a cohort of Norwegian investors. Later, The Information would write about the companies contemplating a full acquisition of 1X by OpenAI in 2025.

In the case of SoftBank, the overlap is considerable. The company had invested over $60 billion into OpenAI and related AI infrastructure projects. In its annual report for 2026 released on July 27, the company indicated that its investment in OpenAI through its SoftBank Vision Fund 2 was valued at $79.6 billion as of the end of March.

Thus, the acquisition of 1X would broaden SoftBank’s AI strategy, which is focused on OpenAI, by extending it from designing models and computing facilities to creating devices capable of performing in homes and in other physical environments.

A bet consistent with SoftBank’s robotics buying spree

This potential acquisition follows a trend. SoftBank has agreed to purchase ABB’s robotics division on October 8, 2025, for $5.375 billion; it anticipates closing the deal in 2026. The firm’s annual report indicated that Vision Funds had over 20 investments involving physical-AI technology with an unrealized fair value of over $8 billion.

With all the spending comes pressure. On August 4, Reuters reported that SoftBank shares were down almost 50% from their June 2023 highs and that about $30 billion of its obligations were due in the second half of 2026. Fitch Ratings has identified the ongoing AI market correction as a key credit risk, particularly given the high valuations and heavy investment spending involved.

The technology gap that the deal has to outrun

The biggest question is whether robotics can mature quickly enough to justify those valuations. At the 2026 World Robot Conference in Beijing, Moore Threads chief Zhang Jianzhong said embodied AI trails large language models by at least five years because of scarce physical-world data, limited model scale and fragmented technical systems, Yicai reported on August 24. Most vision-language-action models run at around seven billion parameters, far below frontier LLMs.

Investors have already shown how quickly enthusiasm can reverse. Unitree closed its Shanghai debut on August 19, 2026, up 460%, then fell about 45% over the next three trading sessions, erasing roughly $30 billion from its peak valuation, Cryptopolitan reported on August 25.

That volatility is the backdrop against which SoftBank is reportedly willing to put a $6 billion valuation on an early-commercialization home-robot company.

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