Norway-based 1X, which is developing humanoid robots, raised a $23.5M Series A2 led by the OpenAI Startup Fund with participation from Tiger Global and others
Autonomous machines are still too clumsy for delicate tasks. But humans can operate mechanical arms from afar, turning physical labor into remote work.
Context & Ripple Effects
This March 2023 round is the opening entry in what has become one of the clearest capital arcs in humanoid robotics. The OpenAI Startup Fund took the lead on a $23.5M Series A2 into Norway-based 1X — a bet on teleoperation as the near-term path to useful robots, since autonomous machines remain too clumsy for delicate tasks while humans can drive mechanical arms remotely. Tiger Global's participation put a prominent crossover fund behind the same thesis.
What followed validates the bet: 1X went on to raise a $100M Series B in January 2024 with NEO headed to market, then was reportedly seeking up to $1B at a $10B+ valuation by late 2025 — more than 12x its January financing — and now aims to build 100K robots at a new California factory. The A2 is also the template moment for frontier-lab money seeding physical-AI startups: Figure AI's $675M raise landed a year later, confirming the category had become a funding race.
First-order effects
- The OpenAI Startup Fund secures an early, low-basis position in 1X ahead of every later round, and the $23.5M funds development of a teleoperation-first approach where humans remotely operate robot arms rather than waiting for full autonomy.
- Tiger Global adds 1X to a portfolio already spanning multiple large tech bets, gaining exposure to embodied AI at pre-product scale.
Second-order effects
- Figure AI's subsequent $675M round at a $2.6B valuation shows competitors responding in kind — once an OpenAI-affiliated backer validated humanoids, rival founders could price raises off that precedent.
- Later entrants like London's Humanoid, which raised a $152M Series A led by Prime Movers Lab at a $1.35B post-money, demonstrate that the funding benchmark set here cascaded to European players too.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, humanoid robotics consolidates into a small set of capital-intensive platforms whose valuations detach from shipped hardware — 1X's reported move from $23.5M toward a $10B+ target inside three years is the case study.
- Frontier-lab-affiliated funds like the OpenAI Startup Fund become kingmakers in physical AI, concentrating the right to commercialize foundation models in robotic form among a few favored startups.
The trend: Frontier AI labs are using their investment arms to seed humanoid robotics as the next capital-intensive platform category, with each successive round repricing the entire field.