Altman’s $252M BCI Bet: OpenAI Challenges Musk with Needle-Free Brain Tech

Sam Altman’s $252 million BCI gamble: Will OpenAI’s non-invasive brain tech outpace Musk’s needles?

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s Merge Labs has raised $252 million for non-invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) research, positioning it as the second-most-funded U.S. BCI project after Neuralink.

The initiative aims to avoid brain implants by using molecular connections, ultrasound, and AI to interpret "intent" from noisy signals.

Merge Labs blog stated:

We believe this requires increasing the bandwidth and brain coverage of BCIs by several orders of magnitude while making them much less invasive.

OpenAI contributed the largest share of the investment, with Gabe Newell of Valve (via Starfish Neuroscience) also involved.

Neuralink and Chinese competitors are further along in human trials, while Merge remains in early research. Bloomberg notes the $252 million will fund a "research lab" to overcome non-invasive BCI limitations, not product development.