Neuralink

Neuralink Corp. is an American neurotechnology company developing implantable brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) that translate neural signals into commands for external devices. Its implant system uses ultra-thin flexible threads (4-6 micrometers wide) placed into the brain by a robotic insertion device, connected to a coin-sized chip that records and decodes activity from groups of neurons. The company's first system, Telepathy, uses 64 threads carrying 1,024 electrodes and is aimed at enabling people with severe paralysis to control computers, phones and robotic devices with their thoughts.

Beyond Telepathy, Neuralink has disclosed a vision-restoration program called Blindsight, intended for people whose visual cortex remains intact, including those who have lost both eyes and the optic nerve; the U.S. FDA granted Blindsight a Breakthrough Device designation in September 2024. A separate speech-restoration application received Breakthrough Device designation in May 2025, covering severe speech impairment from conditions such as ALS, stroke, spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis. Company materials also reference a program addressing tremor and Parkinson's disease. Musk has framed the long-term objective as human enhancement and "symbiosis with artificial intelligence," beyond the near-term medical goals of treating brain and spinal injuries and neurological disease.

The company is headquartered in Fremont, California, having previously occupied the Pioneer Building in San Francisco's Mission District alongside OpenAI, and has reported plans for a three-story office and manufacturing facility in Del Valle, Texas, near Tesla's Gigafactory Texas, plus a leased office building in South San Francisco.

Founding story

Neuralink was founded on June 21, 2016 by Elon Musk together with a team of eight scientists and engineers: Max Hodak, Benjamin Rapoport, Dongjin (DJ) Seo, Paul Merolla, Philip Sabes, Tim Gardner, Tim Hanson and Vanessa Tolosa, assembled after Musk met with more than a thousand candidates and spanning neuroscience, microscale electronics, biochemistry, robotics and biomedical engineering. Musk's interest grew from his concern that artificial intelligence could outpace human capability, and from the "neural lace" concept in Iain M. Banks' The Culture novels, which he described as a digital layer above the cortex. Seo was recruited on the strength of his UC Berkeley doctoral work on Neural Dust, a wireless ultrasonic in-body sensor; Hodak, previously founder of the lab-robotics company Transcriptic (later Strateos), became Neuralink's first president. Neuralink acquired rights to the "NeuraLink" name and an early prototype from neuroscientists Pedram Mohseni and Randolph Nudo after Musk's representatives approached them in January 2017.

Business model

Neuralink develops proprietary implantable hardware, the surgical robot that inserts it, and the signal-processing software, positioning the system as a medical device that would be implanted in patients at clinical sites. Its activity to date is pre-commercial: devices are supplied to participants in company-sponsored clinical trials rather than sold, and commercialization depends on regulatory approval, manufacturing scale-up and reimbursement.

The company is not generating disclosed product revenue; intended future revenue would come from paid implant procedures using its Telepathy and Blindsight systems, with third-party projections describing roughly $100 million of revenue by 2029 from about 2,000 annual Telepathy procedures, $500 million by 2030 and $1 billion by 2031 across around 20,000 procedures at specialized clinics. These figures are forward projections contingent on regulatory approval and insurance coverage.

Traction

The first human implant was announced in January 2024; a third patient was reported implanted in January 2025; five patients had received implants and were controlling digital and physical devices as of June 2025; and 12 people worldwide had been implanted by September 2025, across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the UAE. Four clinical trials of the Telepathy system were running as of mid-2025, with a stated goal of enrolling 20-30 participants globally by the end of 2025 and expansion to Germany and further sites. In the CONVOY study, ALS participant Nick Wray used a robotic arm to drink from a cup, microwave food and open a refrigerator, moving 39 cylinders in five minutes on a dexterity test, and participant Rocky Stoutenburgh moved a robotic arm to his face by thought alone.

Latest developments

In June 2025 Neuralink announced the close of a $650 million round with participation from ARK Invest, Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and others, stating the capital would extend the technology to more patients and fund devices that deepen the link between biological and artificial intelligence. A speech-restoration device received FDA Breakthrough Device designation in May 2025. In August and September 2025, Toronto's University Health Network performed Canada's first Neuralink implant surgeries on two patients with cervical spinal cord injuries, the first such procedures outside the United States, and in October 2025 CONVOY participants demonstrated thought-controlled robotic-arm tasks.