OPENAI
The brain chip beef you didn’t know you needed
Sam Altman is reportedly working on a new brain–computer interface startup called Merge Labs, with a potential valuation of around $850 million.
According to the Financial Times, funding could come from OpenAI’s ventures arm, though talks are still early and nothing is locked in yet.
He’s said to be teaming up with Alex Blania, who runs Tools for Humanity, the group behind the eye-scanning ID system that verifies if someone’s human.
Merge Labs would go head-to-head with Elon Musk’s Neuralink, which is developing brain implants to help people with severe paralysis control devices using only their thoughts.
Neuralink, valued at $9 billion after raising $600 million in June, is already running human trials.
Both projects touch on the idea of the “singularity”, the point where humans and technology merge.
TL;DR:
Merge Labs could be valued at $850m; OpenAI Ventures may fund it.
Partnership with Tools for Humanity’s Alex Blania, positioned as a Neuralink rival.
Neuralink is already in human trials, aiming to merge human thought with technology.
The pettiest chip
Altman has written about this before, imagining a future where humans design their own descendants.
Musk has also used the term, linking it to AI surpassing human intelligence.
The two founders have a history of disagreements, with their latest spat playing out on X this week.
Whether Merge Labs becomes official and how it might rival Neuralink is still to be confirmed.
The brain chip wars are basically tech’s version of Love Island. I said what I said.