Elon Musk’s Neuralink Raises $650M in Series E Funding

Key Takeaways

• Neuralink secured $650M in Series E funding, significantly surpassing its $280M Series D round in 2023, with major backers like ARK Invest, Sequoia, and Founders Fund.
• Three paralyzed patients are actively using Neuralink's Link" implant to control computers and communicate; one even plays Counter-Strike using only his thoughts.
• The company has launched global clinical trials and expanded the implant's capabilities to interact with more brain regions and serve broader use cases.
• Despite breakthroughs, Neuralink faces internal and regulatory challenges, including past FDA scrutiny and competition from rivals like Blackrock Neurotech and Precision Neuroscience.

Neuralink, Elon Musk's brain-computer interface startup, has successfully closed its Series E funding round, securing an impressive $650 million.

The round attracted a powerhouse roster of investors, including ARK Invest, DFJ Growth, Founders Fund, G42, Human Capital, Lightspeed, QIA, Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital, Valor Equity Partners, and Vy Capital.

The figure represents a significant jump from its Series D funding round in August 2023, which raised $280M and an additional $43M coming in November of the same year.

In a company blog post, they announced that it has made significant progress' in building brain interfaces that help restore independence in paralyzed humans.

It listed the five individuals now using Neuralink to control devices, the launch of its global clinical trials, the addition of use cases beyond its original intent, and expanding the number of neurons and brain regions its device interacts with among its achievements since 2023.

Linking Mind and Body, Unlocking the Power of Telepathy

The company has three human patients with Link', its brain implant. It allows these paralyzed patients to operate phones and computers using their thoughts, which Neuralink calls Telepathy'.

The first two patients, Noland Arbaugh and Alex, are paralyzed by spinal cord injuries. But with Neuralink's help, they have been able to control computers, with Arbaugh using the implant to control the mouse and keyboard, and Alex being able to play Counter-Strike.

AnotherNeuralink patient is Brad Smith, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Having the implant allowed him to speak' by controlling the mouse and keyboard to type on a computer screen or choose a reply.

The message is then output as audio of his voice cloned by AI from samples before he lost his ability to speak due to ALS.

As volunteers who participated in the company's PRIME Study, the three have used Link for 670 days and employed Telepathy to communicate for over 4.9K hours.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Founded in 2016 by Musk and a team of scientists and engineers, Neuralink went mainstream the following year after a report from The Wall Street Journal. It was still unclear what products the company might create back then, but there had already been speculations about developing brain implants to treat brain disorders.

By 2019, the company raised $158M, with $100M coming from Musk. During this time, Neuralink revealed that it was developing a device similar to a sewing machine that could implant thin threads into the brain.

Plans to conduct human trials were scheduled in 2020, but they only received FDA approval in 2023. Arbaugh became the first human to receive the Link implant the following year.

However, Neuralink hasn't been without controversy. A 2022 report by Fortune revealed the departure of most of its founding team, citing internal tensions and concerns over erratic leadership. The article also raised red flags about the company potentially overstating its technological capabilities.

In addition, the company faced a probe from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2022 over the higher-than-normal deaths in its animal tests.

Not the Only Game in Town

While Neuralink is perhaps the most familiar name in the world of brain implants, other companies also share the same goal as Musk's. For one, there's Peter Thiel-backed Blackrock Neurotech, which has already conducted trials on over 30 individuals worldwide.

Another notable player is Precision Neuroscience, co-founded in 2021 by Benjamin Rappaport, also a Neuralink co-founder. The company recently secured FDA approval to trial its brain-computer interface, allowing temporary implantation in patients for up to 30 days.

Overall, this healthy competition among well-funded companies could bode well for paralyzed patients or those suffering from brain disorders. That said, these implants' viability and widespread use may still be decades away, after which we may have to contend with their potential ethical issues.

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