The "Final Boss" of Home Robotics: 1X Unveils Next-Gen Robotic Hands for NEO Alongside New CFO

Key Takeaways

Hide

• 1X Technologies has unveiled a new, highly dexterous robotic hand for its NEO humanoid, featuring up to 25 degrees of freedom (DoF) and tendon-driven actuation for human-level manipulation and safety.
• The IP68-rated hands feature inherent compliance and low gear ratios, allowing them to absorb impacts safely while still delivering peak torques up to 45 Nm in distal flexion.
• High-resolution tactile sensing across the fingertips will integrate closely with the company's 1XWM video-to-action AI model to handle complex, unstructured domestic tasks.
• In parallel with the hardware launch, 1X appointed former Cruise and Ursa Major executive Bill Nash as Chief Financial Officer to guide the company's financial strategy ahead of its first consumer shipments.
• The dual announcements signal an aggressive push toward commercialization, following the recent launch of its Hayward manufacturing facility and a pivot to an open developer ecosystem.

The robotics industry's focus is rapidly moving from bipedal locomotion to the far more complex challenge of fine manipulation. Today, 1X Technologies officially unveiled its next-generation robotic hands for the NEO humanoid platform. The announcement positions the company to tackle the "small, fiddly tasks" that have historically stumped robots, such as picking up coins, zipping jackets, and pouring tea.

Earlier this month, 1X also announced a major addition to its executive suite, bringing on Bill Nash as Chief Financial Officer. The combined news highlights a company sprinting to transition its technology from the World Model Lab into the living rooms of early adopters.

Tendon-Driven Precision and Power

The new NEO hands are built entirely in-house and feature an intricate 24-to-25 degree-of-freedom (DoF) architecture, depending on the wrist configuration (22 fully actuated DoF in the fingers and palm, plus a 2- or 3-DoF wrist).

While competitors like Wuji Tech and AGILINK's OmniHand 3 Ultra-M have heavily explored direct-drive systems, 1X has doubled down on a closed-loop, tendon-driven approach. By housing the actuation motors in NEO’s forearms, 1X keeps the physical fingers compact and low-inertia.

This architecture doesn't sacrifice strength for size. 1X claims the hands match or exceed human performance in fine manipulation, delivering peak torques of 3.5 Nm at the thumb and up to 45 Nm of distal flexion force. The resulting system is strong enough to handle heavy grocery bags or use a screwdriver, yet gentle enough to sort grapes by color.

Engineered to Fail Safely

For a humanoid designed to operate in domestic environments, raw power is a liability if it cannot be safely managed. 1X addresses this through mechanical compliance.

The hands utilize extremely low gear ratios (between 5:1 and 15:1) which, combined with the tendon drive, allows external impacts to safely backdrive the fingers. Instead of snapping a joint or bruising a human, the energy from a collision dissipates into the motors.

1X says that the hands will yield when hit with a hammer, pinched in a drawer, or slammed into rigid objects. This inherent physical safety is a cornerstone of 1X’s strategy to bypass the rigid, heavy machinery typical of industrial robotics. Additionally, the hands are IP68 waterproof and food-safe, allowing NEO to literally wash its own hands—a critical feature for kitchen utility.

Sensing the World Like We Do

Vision alone is insufficient for tasks involving occlusion, transparency, or delicate deformation. To bridge this gap, NEO's new hands feature high-resolution tactile sensing across the fingertips and surfaces. The sensors measure normal force, contact location, and shear, enabling the robot to detect when an object begins to slip and react in real-time.

This rich tactile data is essential for the company's broader AI ambitions. By tightly integrating custom electronics, embedded sensing, and proprietary tendon systems, 1X ensures that the physical hardware perfectly complements its video-to-action cognitive models, enabling rapid iteration loops.

C-Suite Expansion for Global Scale

Hardware superiority means little without the logistics and capital to scale it. To that end, 1X has appointed Bill Nash as CFO to lead the company's global finance organization.

Nash brings extensive experience from highly technically ambitious sectors, having recently served as CFO at Ursa Major and playing a critical role in capital raises and operational expansion at autonomous vehicle pioneer Cruise.

"His leadership across complex, high-stakes industries—from autonomous systems and aerospace to biotech—is exactly what we need as we ramp up manufacturing and expand globally," said Bernt Børnich, CEO and Founder of 1X Technologies.

Nash's appointment follows a massive structural reshuffle that recently brought in Tom Sanocki as VP of Engineering. Together, this new leadership team is tasked with overseeing the deployment of the $20,000 NEO platform (also available via a $499/month subscription) to both consumers and a newly accelerated open developer ecosystem.

A Defining Year for Dexterity

The race for capable humanoid hands is accelerating across the sector. Tesla is reportedly applying "finishing touches" to its highly anticipated Optimus Gen 3 hand, while Figure is locking in the design for its Figure 04 platform.

However, with its in-house manufacturing lines already spooling up in Hayward, 1X’s vertically integrated approach represents a massive bet that tendon-driven compliance, rather than rigid gearing, is the key to finally bringing useful robots into our homes.