Changjiang Securities: Neuralink's 2026 Mass Production of Brain-Computer Interfaces and Chinese Firms' Technological Breakthroughs

On January 6, American entrepreneur Elon Musk stated on social media that his brain-computer interface company Neuralink will begin "mass production" of brain-computer interface devices in 2026 and transition to a "more streamlined and almost fully automated surgical process."

Changjiang SecuritiesIt was pointed out that the brain-computer interface market has broad prospects, and invasive products are expected to become the key focus of the track. According to the implantation position and method of electrodes in the cerebral cortex, brain-computer interfaces can be divided into invasive, non-invasive, and semi-invasive types. Among them, invasive products are expected to restore the motor abilities of patients with high-level paralysis, which will be a key area for future development.

According to Precedence Research, the global brain-computer interface market size reached $2.62 billion in 2024, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.4% from 2025 to 2034. In the Chinese market, the scale is expected to exceed 6 billion yuan by 2028, with a CAGR of approximately 17.7% during the 2024-2028 period.

Neuralink adopts a minimally invasive implantation solution. As of September 2025, 12 people worldwide have been implanted with Neuralink devices, with a cumulative usage time of 2,000 days and a total usage duration exceeding 15,000 hours. The N1 chip is equipped with 64 flexible electrode threads, each carrying 16 electrode points, enabling signal acquisition from 1,024 electrodes per chip (compatible with a single cerebral hemisphere). The number of channels is expected to increase further in the future.

Technological R&D Breakthroughs Achieved by Multiple Brain-Computer Interface Companies in China. In November 2025, the "Implantable Wireless Brain-Computer Interface System" independently developed by StairMed officially entered the Center for Medical Device Evaluation of the National Medical Products Administration.Innovative HealthcareSpecial Review Procedure for Devices; By the end of 2025, NeuroXess announced that its self-developed fully implantable, fully wireless, and fully functional ("three-all") brain-computer interface product, which is the first of its kind in China and the second worldwide to feature an internal battery, successfully completed its first clinical trial, bringing new hope to a patient with high-level paralysis who has been completely immobile below the shoulders for eight years.New Hope。

China's brain-computer interface industry is encouraged by policies, with service pricing already established. In March 2025, the National Healthcare Security Administration released the "Guidelines for the Establishment of Medical Service Price Projects for Nervous System Services (Trial)," which, for the first time, independently established projects for brain-computer interfaces. Currently, eight provinces in China have announced medical insurance pricing for brain-computer interface services, and the commercial closed loop for brain-computer interfaces has been gradually completed.

Moreover, experimental animals such as rats and monkeys play a crucial role in brain-computer interface (BCI) research. Rats are one of the most commonly used model animals in neuroscience research, offering advantages like rapid reproduction, low cost, and clear genetic backgrounds. In the early stages of BCI technology development, researchers typically conduct concept validation and preliminary tests on rats to verify the safety of electrode materials, the stability of signal acquisition, and the feasibility of neural decoding algorithms. Ethical reviews for rat experiments are relatively lenient, and the experimental cycle is shorter, enabling scientists to quickly iterate on technical solutions. Many fundamental principles of BCIs, such as decoding motor intentions and reconstructing sensory feedback, were initially validated using rat models. However, due to significant structural and functional differences between rat and human brains, monkeys—possessing similarities in structure and function, the ability to perform complex cognitive and motor tasks, and the necessity for safety evaluations—are ultimately required for final technical validation as they are primates more closely related to humans.