The human brain is considered the best computer ever created. It regulates your body, can store vast amounts of information and it does everything nearly instantaneously. Being such a vital part of your body also means if it’s damaged, it can be life-altering.
People want to understand the brain, so they can replicate it to expand modern technology. Some of the richest people in the world are spending billions of dollars to do just that.
Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk invested $100 million to launch Neuralink in 2016 to develop brain-computer interfaces. In 2021, Neuralink released a video of a monkey playing pong by controlling the movements with his brain. Since then, Musk has made a number of controversial claims that Neuralink will enable human telepathy, cure blindness and heal paralysis.
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Neuralink has come under scrutiny recently, with the U.S. launching an investigation into claims of Neuralink illegally moving hazardous pathogens. This isn’t the first time Musk and Neuralink have come under fire. There were reports of Neuralink killing 1,500 animals, which were later proven false. But Neuralink noted that monkeys have died as a result of some experiments.
Most recently, Neuralink raised $205 million for its Series C funding round, which saw Google Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners Founder Robert Belson, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and several other titans invest.
Musk isn’t the only one pouring hundreds of millions into brain development. Recently, Microsoft Co-Founder Bill Gates and Amazon.com Inc. Founder Jeff Bezos invested in Synchron, a startup focused on deciphering the brain’s neural code. Gates and Bezos invested through their respective venture capital funds Gates Frontier and Bezos Expeditions.
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Synchron raised $75 million in the Series C round from Gates, Bezos, ARCH Venture Partners, Alumni Ventures and a host of other venture capital funds. The funds will help accelerate the development of Synchron’s first platform product, a brain-computer interface called the Synchron Switch.
According to Synchron’s website, the startup has 105 patents and has developed “an endovascular brain-computer interface that can access every corner of the brain” through its 400 miles of blood vessels.
Both of these companies are nearing human trials, so this technology doesn’t seem to be isn’t too far out. While it’s unclear what will come of this, the advancements in this space are certainly extraordinary.
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