Altman Challenges Musk with Merge Labs' Brain-Computer Interface Play Targeting a $400B Market

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(Source: Yicai News)

OpenAI, the new powerhouse in the artificial intelligence industry, is setting its sights on the brain-computer interface sector, escalating its rivalry with companies under tech mogul Elon Musk.

OpenAI Reportedly Plans to Invest in New Brain-Computer Interface Startup Merge Labs at an Approximately $850 Million Valuation, but Negotiations Remain in Early Stages

This move also means that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will launch a new challenge against Musk. Currently, Neuralink, the brain-computer interface company under Musk, has entered the clinical trial stage and has already been implanted in seven patients. The company's valuation has also reached nearly $10 billion.

Industry analysis predicts that the brain-computer interface (BCI) market will reach a scale of up to $400 billion. However, global revenue from BCI products is projected to remain below $1.5 billion by 2035. This indicates that the BCI sector is still in its early stages of development, presenting substantial opportunities for the industry.

According to Neuralink’s projections, the company’s brain-computer interface product is expected to receive U.S. FDA approval by 2029. Within the following two years, the number of implants of its brain-computer interface products will reach 20,000, generating over $1 billion in revenue.

In the U.S. market, competition in the brain-computer interface sector has become highly intense, with companies such as Precision Neuroscience, Synchron, Onward, and Paradromics having announced the initiation or imminent launch of clinical trials.

2025 is also regarded as the “Year One” of China’s brain-computer interface (BCI) industry. So far this year, multiple research teams in China have announced that BCI technology has officially entered or is about to enter the clinical stage; meanwhile, several teams have claimed to complete the “world’s first” clinical treatment using BCI, helping patients restore limb motor function.

In the capital markets, the largest single round of financing in China’s invasive brain-computer interface sector this year amounted to RMB 350 million, secured by Jieti Medical.

Zhu Tongyu, Vice Dean of Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University and Dean of the Institute of Intelligent Medicine at Fudan University, told Yicai Global: “The intense interest in brain-computer interface (BCI) technology stems from its disruptive application prospects. It can not only help paralyzed patients regain mobility but may also enable human-machine thought interconnectivity, memory storage, and even consciousness uploading in the future, fundamentally reshaping the way humans interact with technology.”

Zhu Tongyu believes that brain-computer interface (BCI) technology is currently primarily used to help paralyzed patients restore personal motor functions, with successful cases already reported at Zhongshan Hospital and Huashan Hospital affiliated with Fudan University. However, in the future, research will focus on leveraging BCI technology to capture emotional signals and even achieve more advanced functionalities such as "thought downloading." This will enable the true integration of carbon-based life and silicon-based life (AI), making a future of human-machine symbiosis highly promising.