From News To Moves
The brain-computer interface race is heating up, with OpenAI-backed Merge Labs challenging Neuralink. Here’s where your investment opportunities lie.
By Peter Christensen
Sam Altman and OpenAI are preparing to back a new brain-computer interface startup called Merge Labs, which is raising around $250 million at an $850 million valuation. Altman will co-found the company with Worldcoin’s Alex Blania.
The brain is becoming the next prime real estate in the AI arms race, and the new landlords are moving fast. Merge Labs will enter a field already dominated by Elon Musk’s Neuralink, which just closed a $650 million Series E at a $9 billion valuation and is running human implant trials.
A brain-computer interface is no longer sci-fi speculation. With billions in fresh funding, real human trials, and AI advances, the commercial race to monetize the brain is happening now.
Neural data is enormous in size. Precision Neuroscience, another player in this industry, reports its device generates billions of data points each minute. This data flood must be captured, processed, and decoded using AI algorithms, which requires computer power, memory bandwidth, and fast networking.
Nobody wants to issue a recall for your brain, so implantable devices demand extremely reliable parts. Electrodes are made from platinum-iridium alloys. Wires pass through sealed casings using “feedthroughs” designed to last decades. Hermetic connectors keep moisture out of sensitive electronics. These aren’t glamorous technologies, but they are bottlenecks supplied by a handful of specialty manufacturers.
The FDA has updated its cybersecurity rules for medical devices. Companies now need detailed software bills of materials and patching plans. Without them, approval delays loom. Big Tech is going beyond knowing your search history. They want to know your actual thoughts. So, California, Colorado, Montana, and other states have passed laws to protect “neural data,” creating additional compliance requirements. Larger medtech firms with capital and regulatory expertise will be positioned to navigate these hurdles, while smaller startups may be forced to partner or sell.
The brain-interface frontier doesn’t stop at therapy. The industry is openly discussing combining brain interfaces with digital identity and even e-commerce. The idea: a secure neural ID that authenticates the user and transacts on their behalf. If consumer trust follows and privacy hurdles don’t choke adoption, this could open new profit centers in identity, payments, and data monetization.
Investors don’t need to bet on who will eventually own your mind. The safest near-term bet is on the hardware suppliers that enable this technology. Here’s our play on the “picks and shovels.”
The brain-computer interface race is heating up, with Neuralink and OpenAI-backed Merge Labs leading a field that could reshape identity, therapy, and AI data flows. Who will be the winners in the race to conquer your skull is yet unknown. The smart and safe play is on the suppliers that will get paid before any winner is announced. Here are your top choices:
The safest, most immediate investment play on brain implants is in its infrastructure: the materials, connectors, compute, and compliance players that make brain interfaces viable. As capital floods into the space and regulation ramps up, the suppliers, medtech majors, and AI plumbing firms will get paid first.
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