Elon Musk’s Neuralink raises $650 million in fresh capital

Elon Musk’s brain tech startup Neuralink has closed a $650 million funding round, the corporate announced Monday.

ARK Invest, Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital, Lightspeed Enterprise Partners and other firms participated within the round, in line with a press release. Neuralink said the fresh capital will help the corporate bring its technology to more patients and develop recent devices that “deepen the connection between biological and artificial intelligence.”

Neuralink is constructing a brain-computer interface, or BCI, which is a system that translates brain signals into commands for external technologies.

The corporate’s first system, called Telepathy, involves 64 “threads” which are inserted directly into the brain. The threads are thinner than a human hair and record neural signals through 1,024 electrodes, in line with Neuralink’s website.

The initial aim of the technology is to assist patients with severe paralysis restore some independence. As of Monday, five patients have been implanted with Neuralink’s technology, and are capable of “control digital and physical devices with their thoughts,” the discharge said.

Neuralink is currently carrying out 4 separate clinical trials around its Telepathy system.

BCIs have been studied in academia for many years, and several other other firms, including Synchron, Paradromics and Precision Neuroscience, are developing their very own systems. 

Paradromics on Monday announced it successfully implanted its BCI in a human for the primary time.  

It is not clear what devices Neuralink will look to develop next, but Musk has for years espoused grand ambitions for the brain tech startup. He has even claimed that he can be willing to get an implant himself.

One in all the capabilities Musk has repeatedly highlighted is the power to revive vision to blind patients.

Neuralink received a “Breakthrough Device” designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a tool called Blindsight. This designation is granted to medical devices which have the potential to offer improved treatment for debilitating or life-threatening conditions.

In a post on his social media platform X in September, Musk said Blindsight will enable even those that have lost each eyes and their optic nerve to see.

Neuralink still has a protracted road ahead before it might probably commercialize these technologies.

WATCH: Neuralink shares video of patient playing chess using signals from brain implant