Neuralink

Neuralink Corp. is an American <a href="/facts/Transhumanism/lTkdgFLo">transhumanist</a> <a href="/facts/Neurotechnology/6U9E29MG">neurotechnology</a> company that has developed, as of 2024, implantable <a href="/facts/Brain%25E2%2580%2593computer_interface/wdXWqFVr">brain–computer interfaces</a> (BCIs), also known as <a href="/facts/Brain_implant/eaHAKydz">brain implants</a>. It was founded by <a href="/facts/Elon_Musk/GFgcp9Im">Elon Musk</a> and a team of eight scientists and engineers. Neuralink was launched in 2016 and first publicly reported in March 2017.
The company is based in <a href="/facts/Fremont%2c_California/MXBKnlI0">Fremont, California</a>, with plans to build a three-story building with office and manufacturing space near <a href="/facts/Austin%2c_Texas/xpVP4t98">Austin, Texas</a>, in <a href="/facts/Del_Valle%2c_Texas/FEMRWjUy">Del Valle</a>, about 10 miles east of <a href="/facts/Gigafactory_Texas/ttW5TsDT">Gigafactory Texas</a>, <a href="/facts/Tesla%2c_Inc./dSyLNM1D">Tesla</a>'s headquarters and manufacturing plant that opened in 2022.
Since its founding, the company has hired several high-profile <a href="/facts/Neuroscientist/DvcNRpyM">neuroscientists</a> from various universities. By 2019, it had received $158 million in funding ($100 million was from Musk) and had 90 employees. At that time, Neuralink announced that it was working on a "sewing machine-like" device capable of implanting very thin (4 to 6 <a href="/facts/Micrometre/7eDFxD2L">μm</a> in width) threads into the brain, and demonstrated a system that reads information from a lab rat via 1,500 <a href="/facts/Electrode/251PaKX8">electrodes</a>. It anticipated starting experiments with humans in 2020, but later moved that to 2023. As of May 2023, it has been approved for human trials in the United States. On January 29, 2024, Musk announced that Neuralink had successfully implanted a Neuralink device in a human and that the patient was recovering.
The company has faced criticism for the large number of primates that were <a href="/facts/Euthanized/EECxNk9C">euthanized</a> after medical trials. Veterinary records of the monkeys showed complications with surgically implanted electrodes.
In September 2024, the company announced that its latest development effort, <a href="/facts/Blindsight_(Neuralink)/P5WH5KAu">Blindsight</a>, would enable blind people whose <a href="/facts/Visual_cortex/qmF8F5Sb">visual cortex</a> is undamaged to regain some level of vision. The development received "breakthrough" status from the U.S. federal government, which will accelerate development.

Neuralink open-in-new

Neuralink