1X Technologies vs Preferred Networks

1X Technologies has a disclosed valuation of $820M, while Preferred Networks's valuation is not publicly available, making a direct size comparison difficult. 1X Technologies employs 150 people.

Preferred Networks has raised more in total funding at $308M, compared to 1X Technologies's $137M — a gap of $171M. Combined, the two companies have completed 4 known funding rounds.

1X Technologies leads with an Awaira Score of 82/100, while Preferred Networks sits at 72/100. That 10-point gap reflects real differences in funding, scale, and traction — it's not a vanity metric.

1X Technologies was founded by Bernt Bornich in 2014. Preferred Networks was founded by Toru Nishikawa in 2014. Visit each company's profile on Awaira for a full founder biography.

1X Technologies: 1X Technologies is a Norwegian robotics company founded in 2014 that develops humanoid robots designed for physical automation tasks, backed by investors including the OpenAI Startup Fund and Tiger Global. 1X focuses on creating general-purpose humanoid robots equipped with advanced AI capabilities to perform dangerous, repetitive, or physically demanding work across industrial and service sectors. The company's primary product line centers on bipedal robots with dexterous manipulation capabilities, combining mechanical engineering with machine learning to enable autonomous task execution. The robots are designed to navigate real-world environments and adapt to varied operational scenarios. 1X Technologies positions itself in the emerging humanoid robotics segment alongside competitors like Tesla's Optimus and Boston Dynamics. The company emphasizes practical deployment over theoretical research, targeting near-term commercial applications in logistics, manufacturing, and facility management. Key technical differentiators include proprietary control systems and embodied AI approaches that enable robots to learn from experience. The robotics sector has attracted substantial venture capital investment, reflecting investor confidence in the humanoid robot market potential. The company's growth trajectory reflects increasing market interest in physical automation solutions, though commercial deployment at scale remains in early stages across the industry. 1X Technologies combines humanoid robot hardware with embodied AI to create commercially-focused autonomous workers for industrial applications. Preferred Networks: Preferred Networks develops deep learning technology applied to robotics, autonomous driving, and industrial applications, building neural network architectures for real-time edge inference in robot control, factory automation, and connected vehicle systems. The Tokyo company gained international recognition for early competition victories in autonomous navigation and robot manipulation challenges and developed its own deep learning framework, Chainer, which influenced the design of PyTorch before Chainer was eventually retired.\n\nThe company raised approximately $350 million including a landmark $105 million Series A from Toyota Motor Corporation and other strategic investors, making it one of the most valuable AI startups in Japan at the time of its fundraising. Preferred Networks collaborates with Toyota on autonomous driving AI, with NTT on communications AI, and with Fanuc on factory robot intelligence, creating a portfolio of deep technology industrial partnerships that provide both funding and deployment scale for its AI research.\n\nPreferred Networks operates in Japan industrial AI market where established relationships with major manufacturing and automotive companies provide a defensible position that international AI startups find difficult to penetrate through conventional sales approaches. The company research focus on edge AI inference for robotics aligns with Japan competitive strengths in manufacturing automation and precision robotics, markets where AI-enhanced robot intelligence is being adopted to address labour shortages and quality requirements that purely mechanical automation cannot satisfy.

Both 1X Technologies and Preferred Networks launched in 2014. Same year, but even a few months' head start matters in AI — early movers lock in data, talent, and customer relationships fast.

1X Technologies has about 150 employees; Preferred Networks has about 100-500. A bigger team usually means more revenue or heavier VC backing, but in AI, small teams can build at massive scale.

Yes — they're direct rivals. Both 1X Technologies and Preferred Networks compete in AI Robotics, targeting many of the same buyers. If you're evaluating one, you should be looking at the other.