The Financial Times reports today that Sam Altman has OpenAI planning to invest in new brain-computer interface (BCI) venture Merge Labs.
According to the report, OpenAI — the company behind ChatGPT — seeks to provide financial backing to Merge Labs as it raises funds. The report cites three people with knowledge of the situation, saying that Merge Labs aims to raise $250 million from OpenAI and others. Talks remain at an early stage, the report says, and Altman reportedly doesn’t plan to invest himself.
FT said the new company carries an $850 million valuation, with a large chunk of new funds expected to arrive from OpenAI’s venture arm.
The report says Altman intends to help launch the Merge Labs project with Alex Blania. Altman previously backed World, Blania’s eyeball-scanning ID venture, the report said.
According to FT, it could mark another battle between Altman and Elon Musk, who backs Neuralink, one of the leaders right now in the BCI space. The two co-founded OpenAI but have clashed over the years since Musk left the company’s board in 2018.
Neuralink is one of many companies vying to be the first to bring a BCI implant to market. Last fall, analysts suggested a potential $400 billion market opportunity for BCIs. Neuralink, meanwhile, continues to add funding, with recent financings bringing its value past $9 billion.
Bloomberg reported last month that Neuralink expects FDA approval for its BCI by 2029. Within two years, it then expects to have 20,000 BCI implants under its belt along with billions in revenue.
Other recent developments in the implantable BCI space Merge Labs hopes to enter
Precision Neuroscience may have gotten a leg up on the BCI field in April, picking up FDA 510(k) clearance for its Layer 7 cortical interface for BCI technology. The company says it’s the first full regulatory clearance granted to a company developing a next-generation wireless BCI.
More companies are working toward bringing BCI’s to market, too, with Synchron advancing its own Stentrode platform, becoming the first BCI maker to achieve native integration with a new Apple protocol. As of this past spring, Onward has completed a number of BCI implants as well, while Paradromics moves closer to the launch of its own BCI trial.
Elsewhere, Science Corporation — founded by a Neuralink co-founder — submitted its own sight-restoring BCI for CE mark in June. InBrain Neuroelectronics is also accelerating its own BCI development, while a hospital in China has launched the country’s first-in-human clinical trial of an invasive BCI.
Other recent BCI developments include first-in-human cases for Axoft and CorTec, funding for Phantom Neuro and the formation of a new BCI company through the merger of Kandu Health and Neurolutions.
For more on the space, MassDevice has compiled lists of BCI and neurotech companies you need to know in recent years:
- 2024 – Another 5 brain-computer interface companies you should know
- 2024 – 7 neurotech companies you need to know
- 2023 – 5 more brain-computer interface companies you need to know
- 2022 – 7 brain-computer interface companies you need to know
Learn more about BCIs and some of the players in the space HERE.
