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Audible.Com wondery the viral robot company, which is called X1. They've just made a deal to send their humanoid robots to factories and warehouses. The reason why this is interesting is because when they went viral originally this was a robot that was positioned as like your house cleaner. It was going to help you with everything. They had a bunch of pushback. There's all the drama. We'll get into all of it. And where the company is today is a different place than what I think a lot of people are anticipating. I mean, it's no less an incredible feat of technology. So I'm excited about all the advancements we've made there. But it is interesting the way the company is pivoting and what we've seen there. Before we get into that, Jamie, do you want to tell them about our school community?
C
Absolutely. Yeah. So if you've ever wanted to grow your business or make learn how to make money on the side using AI, you should definitely check out our school community called AI Hustle. So each week we release bonus content over there and we go through just different tutorials about different programs we're using to either grow our business or help other people grow their businesses using AI. So there's a it's a community of over 300 members and we go through specific strategies like Jaden went through this week talking about a program he's using to make AI podcasts sound more natural, less robotic. So just really interesting stuff over there. It's $19 a month. It's on sale right now for the holiday season and so you can lock that price in and it will never be raised any. So we'd love to have you be a part of our over 300 member community. But let's start talking about 1X, the robotics company. This is. This is a pretty fascinating story, I think, I believe this is the company. They went viral because they had these robots that were humanoid and they would have them try to do different house tasks. And for example, one of them was loading the dishwasher, and it took it like an hour to load the dishwasher. So I think it kind of went viral for some of the wrong reasons. But now with this latest announcement, it sounds like they're actually going to be using these robotics in manufacturing facilities rather than in the home. So is that the general overview, Jaden, from what you've heard?
B
Yeah, which is kind of an interesting pivot because the way they pitched this and to get mass market, perhaps, like, awareness about the product is that, yeah, this is gonna be like your robot. Now, the controversy that happened was all of their demo videos where the robot is, like, folding your laundry and emptying your washing machine and your dishwasher and stuff. It turns out that all of those demos, they had, like a little font at the bottom of the screen sometimes. But essentially all of those demos were a person with a VR headset in, like a remote place, looking through the camera on the robot, moving the robot to do those things. So it had a couple things that it could do autonomously by itself. You could tell it to go open the door for you. Like if someone ring the doorbell, you go tell it to open the door. I think you could tell it to take a cup or to get you a cup of water. Those were two things that it autonomously did. But almost everything else in their demo, where it was folding laundry and walking around and vacuuming and like doing all this other stuff, stuff that seems really useful, was a person in VR headset. Now, of course, this is a brand new company. They're trying to show off their technology. They're, they're. But the interesting thing was they were. They had it on their website, like, available for pre order. You could literally go and put, like a payment down to pre order this robot to be in your home. And then people were like, so it can, you know, open my door, get me water, and then have someone in a warehouse with a VR headset somewhere, like, looking through and doing my laundry. Like, I don't know, it sounds kind of weird. So I think that was kind of how they positioned it. That was the pushback they got. And then now it appears they're going to focus on sending these to warehouses.
C
Yeah. So the robot that they showed on those demos is called the. I believe it was called the Neo humanoid robot. They actually 1x does have a robot designed for many industrial purposes called EVE Industrial. But this announcement is that the Neo robots are actually going to be sent to the factory as well. So I feel like this is a robot. There's, there's that technology there that could be put to good use. And I think having it learn a repetitive task is, is something that probably is going to be easier to, to pull off right now with where the AI is at as opposed to giving it a bunch of different general tasks, you know, around the home. If it could just sit there and fold boxes all day or, or load pallets. You know, to me that seems like easily achievable technology right now that they could use the robots for. So do you think that's what they're doing with, with these Eve robots?
B
Yeah, 100%. It's kind of funny because if you go to their website still they have like Neo the home robot order now $200 deposit. And then they have like this whole video where it's like, you know, an elderly couple playing cards at a table and the robot is like in the background. It's like dusting, it's putting some books back on the shelf, it's bringing in the groceries, it's bringing them flowers like so they're really like on their website this thing is really positioned as it's helping you inside of your house do everything. Oh, the one other thing that a lot of people roasted them for is when someone was drinking a cup of water and they gave it to it and was like, here, go put this in the sink for me. It wasn't a glass cup, it was like some sort of like cardboard looking cup. So anyways, obviously it can't drop it and break it. So people, you know, wonder how beneficial this thing is. The way they pitched is they have something called Expert mode. Expert mode means someone with a VR headset is looking through the camera and doing it for you. So anyways you. But you also have to schedule that. You have to schedule a 1x expert to do the job for it. Anyways. There's all the funny things. I do think this is a perfect move for them to get into doing warehouse and that kind of work. It's very repetitive. It's much easier to program it for it. It's very useful. I think we're going to need millions of humanoid robots inside of warehouses and helping with logistics and manufacturing, all that kind of stuff. Like I have, you know, friends that have worked in manufacturing and you know, they, it's it's like a very repetitive task where they're, you know, maybe using a big huge piece of machinery to cut something. Some, some of the stuff can be very dangerous too. You're lifting heavy things, people, things can fall on you. You're working with saw blades. Like some of this stuff can be very dangerous work. And I think having humanoid robots do it is a great move. I know some people are concerned about displacing people and in work and jobs, I think that especially things that are heavy or have any sort of danger to them or have, you know, like people get their fingers or hands cut off in this machinery. I just think that we are going to want a robot to do it at some point. And so I don't think it's as controversial to, to use a robot for a lot of this kind of stuff. Stuff. I know some people argue and disagree with me on that. In any case, what's interesting to me is how this manufacturing robot deal is set up and who is setting it up because they didn't just find a random client that saw their home humanoid robot demo and was like, oh my gosh, I want you in all my factories is actually one of their investors. I don't know if you saw anything about that, Jamie.
C
I didn't, but I was just thinking about my factory experience growing up. I, I worked out of college, I worked in a factory for a short time and we just would sit there folding plastic cases that would hold iPhone cases and then set them on a belt to be stamped, you know, by a machine. Horribly boring work. We just stood there for all day. We got I think two 10 minute breaks and no lunch. It was like, felt like slave labor. But my boss actually, she only had three fingers because two of them got chopped off in the machine. So like, yeah, like you said, it can be extremely dangerous work. Not to mention it's already pretty dehumanizing to do. So I would, I would prefer to have robot do it instead of myself.
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But yeah, okay, well, I'm glad that I, I'm, yeah, I'm glad that you backed me up on that point there. But I like, I have a lot of friends that have had the same experience. And so to me it's just, I have never worked on a, I've never worked at a factory. But growing up I did work on farms a lot because there was a lot of farms around me, so. And I also think that having a humanoid robot work on farms, like I would weed 100 acre cabbage patches less anyone thinks I had a super Privileged life with no hard work. I did weed 100 acre cabbage patches all summer in the hot sun and I think a humanoid robot would do a fantastic job of that. And yeah, anyways, so, but maybe my, maybe my 15 year old self would be sad to miss out on the minimum wage that they were paying me for that. So who knows. But in any case, the deal that's being structured to send these to the factories, I just want to go over that really quick. I do think it's interesting. It's a company called EQT and so they're going to be getting up to 10,000 Neo humanoid robots between 2026 and 2030. Obviously it's a big range, but they want to announce the whole thing now because it's going to make NIO look like a good, you know, a great company. So they're like, look, over the next four years we're going to buy like 10,000 robots. So now they have a letter of intent they can show to future investors and get more investor investment money. The reason why this is important is because EQT is an investor in Neo. So they want to give NEO a good deal or you know, want to give them like a first purchase order so they can go show that to investors and get more money. Basically they're going to be doing this for their 300 portfolio companies. So EQT has invested in a lot of different companies and so they're just like, look, we'll be the person that buys them. We'll, instead of you going and signing like you know, ten or a hundred robots to all of these, to a bunch of different random companies, we'll just sign you a big huge letter of intent, 10,000 that we're going to purchase. We'll, we'll worry about distributing them between our portfolio companies. I mean basically we gave our portfolio companies money. So we'll tell them they have to buy these new robots from us. I'm sure there's like some level of that or maybe it's super useful, super good, whatever, I don't know. But in any case, they have invested in a bunch of manufacturing, warehouse, logistics, other industrial companies they'll be putting them into there. They're going to sign individual deals with each of EQT's interested portfolio companies. So they'll have individual deals signed. But EQT is kind of the one that is the big umbrella putting this whole thing together. I think it's interesting. NIO is definitely not the only company doing these humanoid robots. They have a lot of competition from figure Tesla is making their Optimus robot. I think there's going to be a lot of competition and I think, you know, in the next four years, 2026 to 2030, we will see this become very common. And I it will not surprise me when one of these becomes mainstream inside of people's homes. It might not be Neo, but but someone is going to be able to do that totally.
C
Well, in any case, it's exciting to see the development and usefulness of robots with AI now and then. Yeah. To think about the future is we're going to get, we're going to get the ultimate made robot. I'm convinced in the next five years we'll see. But in any case, thanks for listening. If you guys appreciated this episode, we would love a review or rating wherever you're listening. Those help our podcast reach more people and we would really love that. And again, check out our school community AI Hustle. If you want to learn how to grow your business or just make money on the side using AI, we'd love to have you be a part of it. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.
Podcast: AI Hustle: Make Money from AI and ChatGPT, Midjourney, NVIDIA, Anthropic, OpenAI
Hosts: Jaeden Schafer and Jamie McCauley
Episode Date: December 26, 2025
This episode dives into the transformative journey of 1X—the viral humanoid robotics company previously known for its domestic robot demos—now making a significant shift toward industrial and warehouse applications. The hosts break down the company's pivot, the technology's current capabilities (and limitations), the controversy over early demos, and the implications of a major new manufacturing deal. The conversation explores both the potential and practical challenges of deploying humanoid robots in the real world, particularly in repetitive and hazardous work environments.
This episode offers a balanced and nuanced look at the real-world hurdles and opportunities facing humanoid robotics—moving beyond the viral hype to discuss deployment, utility, and ethics. Through personal anecdotes and clear-eyed analysis, Jaeden and Jamie convey excitement tempered by realism about how robots like those from 1X will reshape dangerous and repetitive work, and eventually, perhaps, domestic life too. The enthusiastic, practical tone is grounded in their signature blend of entrepreneurial hustle and AI skepticism.