High-Bandwidth BCI Era Dawns? OpenAI Bets Big on Merge Labs to Challenge Musk's Neuralink

According to three people with direct knowledge of the plan,Merge Labs, a new company, is raising a new round of funding at a valuation of $850 million, with the majority of the capital expected to come from OpenAI’s venture capital arm.

Two informed sources stated that Altman has been encouraging this investment and will work with Alex Blania to drive the project’s launch. Blania oversees the “World” project, a digital identity verification system based on iris scanning, which previously received support from OpenAI and jointly promotedWorldcoin (World Coin) Cryptocurrency Project。

They added that Altman would co-found the company but would not be involved in the day-to-day operations of new projects.

Merge is one of many emerging companies seeking to leverage the latest advances in artificial intelligence to build more useful brain-computer interfaces. Its name derives from “the merge,” a term used by many in Silicon Valley to describe the moment when humans and machines converge. In a lengthy blog post published in 2017, Altman speculated that this moment could arrive as early as 2025. This year, he pointed out in another blog post thatThanks to recent technological advancements, we may soon have “high-bandwidth brain-computer interfaces.”

The company plans to raise $250 million from OpenAI and other investors, although negotiations are still in the early stages. Altman himself will not participate in the investment.

The new company will directly compete with Musk’s Neuralink, which is dedicated to achieving direct connections between the human brain and computers. Neuralink is leading the brain-computer interface industry, while multiple startups, including Precision Neuroscience and Synchron, have been striving to catch up.

Earlier this year, Neuralink raised $650 million at a $9 billion valuation, with investors including Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital, and Vy Capital. Altman had previously invested in Neuralink.

Brain implant technology has a history spanning several decades, but recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and electronic components for acquiring brain signals have brought hope for its greater role in practical applications.