Neuralink Corp.
Private
FoundedJune 21, 2016 (age 10)
Founders
  • Elon Musk
  • Max Hodak
  • Benjamin Rapoport
  • Dongjin Seo
  • Paul Merolla
  • Philip Sabes
  • Timothy J. Gardner
  • Tim Hanson
  • Vanessa Tolosa
Key peopleJared Birchall (CEO)
IndustryNeurotechnology
Products
OwnerElon Musk (over 50%)
Num employees (2022)c. 300[1]
Websiteneuralink.com
Hq locationFremont, California, United States[2]

Neuralink Corp.[3] is an American neurotechnology company that is developing implantable brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).[4] It was founded by Elon Musk and a team of eight scientists and engineers.[3][5][6][7] Neuralink was launched in 2016 and first publicly reported in March 2017.[8][9][10][11] The company is based in Fremont, California, with plans to build a three-story building with office and manufacturing space in Del Valle, about 10 miles east of Gigafactory Texas, Tesla's headquarters and manufacturing plant.[5]

Since its founding, the company has hired several high-profile neuroscientists from various universities.[12] By 2019, it had received $158 million in funding ($100 million was from Musk) and had 90 employees.[13] At that time, Neuralink announced that it was working on a "sewing machine-like" device capable of implanting very thin (4 to 6 μm in width)[14] threads into the brain, and demonstrated a system that reads information from a lab rat via 1,500 electrodes. It anticipated starting experiments with humans in 2020,[13] but later moved that to 2023. As of May 2023, it has been approved for human trials in the United States.[6] On January 29, 2024, Musk announced that Neuralink had successfully implanted a Neuralink device in a human and that the patient was recovering.[15] He was later identified as Noland Arbaugh.

The company has faced criticism for the large number of primates that were euthanized after medical trials. The monkeys' veterinary records allegedly show complications with surgically implanted electrodes.[16] In September 2024, Neuralink announced that its latest development effort, Blindsight, would enable blind people whose visual cortex is undamaged to regain some level of vision. The development received "breakthrough" status from the U.S. federal government, which will accelerate development.[17] In August and September 2025, Toronto's University Health Network performed Canada's first Neuralink brain implant surgeries on two patients with cervical spinal cord injuries, marking the first such procedures outside the United States.[18]

Company

History

Neuralink was founded in 2016 by Elon Musk and a founding team of eight scientists and engineers: Max Hodak, Benjamin Rapoport, Dongjin Seo, Paul Merolla, Philip Sabes, Tim Gardner, Tim Hanson, and Vanessa Tolosa.[3][5][6][9][7][19][20] The initial hires included experts in neuroscience, biochemistry, and robotics.[10] In January 2017, Musk proxies approached Pedram Mohseni and Randolph Nudo, who owned the rights to the name "NeuraLink" and the prototype on which Musk's company based its work.[21]

In April 2017, Neuralink announced that it was aiming in the short term to make devices to treat serious brain diseases, with the eventual goal of human enhancement, sometimes called transhumanism.[22][10][23] Musk said his interest in the idea partly stemmed from the concept of "neural lace" in the fictional universe in The Culture, a series of 10 novels by Iain M. Banks.[23][24]

Musk defined the neural lace as a "digital layer above the cortex" that would not necessarily require extensive surgical insertion but could be implanted through a vein or artery.[25] He said the long-term goal is to achieve "symbiosis with artificial intelligence",[26] which he perceives as an existential threat to humanity if unchecked.[26][27] He believes the device will be "something analogous to a video game, like a saved game situation, where you are able to resume and upload your last state" and "address brain injuries or spinal injuries and make up for whatever lost capacity somebody has with a chip."[28]

Jared Birchall, the head of Musk's family office, was listed as Neuralink's CEO, CFO, and president in 2018.[29][30] As of September 2018, Musk was its majority owner but did not hold an executive position.[31] Co-founder Benjamin Rapoport cited safety concerns as a major influence on his decision to leave Neuralink in 2018.[32] Rapoport subsequently founded Precision Neuroscience, emphasizing the use of surface electrodes as opposed to the penetrating electrodes of Neuralink, in order to address brain damage and other safety concerns caused by Neuralink's devices.[33]

By August 2020, only three of the eight founding scientists remained at the company, according to an article by Stat News. It reported that Neuralink had seen "years of internal conflict in which rushed timelines have clashed with the slow and incremental pace of science".[34] As of 2020, Neuralink was headquartered in San Francisco's Mission District, sharing the Pioneer building with OpenAI, another company Musk co-founded.[30][35] As of 2022, Neuralink's headquarters were in Fremont, California.[2]

In April 2021, Neuralink demonstrated a monkey playing the game "Pong" using a Neuralink implant.[36] Similar technology had existed since 2002, when a research group demonstrated a monkey moving a computer cursor with neural signals, but scientists acknowledged that making the implant wireless and increasing the number of implanted electrodes represented engineering progress.[37][38][39]

In May 2021, co-founder and president Max Hodak announced that he no longer worked with the company.[7] Only two of the eight co-founders remained at the company as of January 2022.[40] On February 8, 2024, Musk changed the location of Neuralink's business incorporation from Delaware to Nevada[41] after Delaware Chancery Court Chief Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick voided Musk's $55 billion pay package at Tesla.[42] In April 2025, Neuralink falsely called itself a "small disadvantaged business" in a federal filing with the U.S. Small Business Administration.[43]

Technology

In 2018, Gizmodo reported that Neuralink "remained highly secretive about its work". Public records showed that it had sought to open an animal testing facility in San Francisco, but it subsequently began doing research at the University of California, Davis.[30] In 2019, during a live presentation at the California Academy of Sciences, the Neuralink team revealed the technology of the first prototype it had been working on. It is a system that involves ultra-thin probes inserted into the brain, a neurosurgical robot to perform the operations, and a high-density electronic system capable of processing information from neurons. It is based on technology developed at the University of California, San Francisco and the University of California, Berkeley.[44]

Probes

The probes, made mostly of polyimide, a biocompatible material, with a thin gold or platinum conductor, are inserted into the brain through an automated process performed by a surgical robot. Each probe consists of an area of wires that contains electrodes capable of locating electrical signals in the brain and a sensory area where the wire interacts with an electronic system that allows amplification and acquisition of the brain signal. Each probe contains 48 or 96 wires, each of which contains 32 independent electrodes, making a system of up to 3,072 electrodes per formation.[14][45]

Robot

Neuralink says it has engineered a surgical robot capable of rapidly inserting many flexible probes into the brain, which may avoid the tissue damage and longevity problems associated with larger, more rigid probes.[46][47][48] This surgical robot has an insertion head with a 25 μm diameter needle made of tungsten-rhenium designed to attach to the insertion loops, inject individual probes, and penetrate the meninges and cerebral tissue; it can insert up to six wires (192 electrodes) per minute.[46] A linear motor powers the needle, enabling fast retraction acceleration and varying insertion speeds. A 50-μm tungsten wire that has been bent at the tip and is driven both axially and rotationally makes up the pincher. An imaging stack is also included in the inserter head for needle guidance, real-time insertion viewing, and verification.[46][49][50]

Electronics

Neuralink has developed an application-specific integrated circuit to create a 1,536-channel recording system. This system consists of 256 amplifiers that can be individually programmed, analog-to-digital converters within the chip, and peripheral circuit control to serialize the digitized information obtained.[46][51] It aims to convert information obtained from neurons into an understandable binary code in order to achieve greater understanding of brain function and the ability to stimulate these neurons back. So far, Neuralink's electrodes are too big to record the firing of individual neurons; they can record only the firing of a group of neurons. Neuralink representatives believe this issue may be mitigated algorithmically, but it is computationally expensive and does not produce exact results.[52] In July 2020, Musk said that Neuralink had obtained a FDA breakthrough device designation, which allows limited human testing under the FDA guidelines for medical devices.[53][54]

Public compression challenge

On May 29, 2024, Musk issued a request for public input on a challenge facing Neuralink. He suggested that due to the size of the data in need of transmission, a compression rate of more than 200x was needed. The challenge specified that compression needed to be lossless, work under low power, and compress data in real time. Software consultant Roy van Rijn called the prospect of 200x lossless compression "just outlandish."[55][56]

Animal testing and harm

Neuralink tests its devices by surgically implanting them in the brains of live monkeys, pigs, and other animals.[57] This has been criticized by groups such as PETA.[58] In August 2020, Neuralink conducted a live demo in which the brain activity of a pig, Gertrude, was displayed in real time.[59][60] A removable device,[61][62] the size of a coin (23 millimeters),[63][64] was implanted in Gertrude's brain and recorded signals from the neurons connected to her snout as she interacted with her environment, such as when she sniffed or touched things.[65][66] The data showed that the technology could read and interpret brain signals, which is key to developing applications that can treat neurological conditions, enable brain-to-machine communication, or enhance human cognition.[67][68][69][70][71] The demonstration included two other pigs. The Neuralink chip implanted in one of the pigs was removed to demonstrate that it could be done without harming the pig.[72][73] The third pig, which did not have an implanted chip,[74][75] served as a comparison to show the similarity in health and behavior of the implanted and non-implanted pigs.[76][77]

From 2017 to 2020, Neuralink's experiments on monkeys were conducted in partnership with University of California, Davis. At the end of the partnership, UC Davis transferred seven monkeys to Neuralink. In 2022, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), an animal welfare advocacy group, alleged that Neuralink and UC Davis had mistreated several monkeys, subjecting them to psychological distress, extreme suffering, and chronic infections due to surgeries.[78] Experiments conducted by Neuralink and UC Davis have involved at least 23 monkeys, and the PCRM believes that 15 of those died or were euthanized as a result of the experiments. The PCRM also alleged that UC Davis withheld photographic and video evidence of the mistreatment.[79]

In February 2022, Neuralink said that macaque monkeys were euthanized after experimentation and denied that any animal abuse had occurred.[80][81] In December 2022, it was reported that Neuralink was under federal investigation by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for animal welfare violations. Additionally, a Reuters report cited claims by several Neuralink employees that testing was rushed due to Musk's demands for fast results and that was causing needless animal suffering and deaths.[81][82] A September 2023 exposé by Wired provided details on the primate deaths based on public records and confidential interviews with a former Neuralink employee and a researcher at the California National Primate Research Center.[16][83] Those records showed complications with the installation of electrodes, including partial paralysis, bloody diarrhea, and brain swelling.[16]

In 2022, after being rejected for human clinical trials by the FDA, Neuralink performed more tests on pigs to address safety concerns. Some of these pigs were observed to have developed granulomas (inflammatory tissues) in their brains. Neuralink could not determine the cause of the granulomas, but claimed that the implant and its associated threads were not the cause.[84] In July 2023, a United States Department of Agriculture investigation found no evidence of animal welfare breaches in the trials other than a self-reported incident in 2019.[85] The PCRM disputed the investigation's result.[86] In October 2023, Wired reported that Neuralink worked to keep details of animal suffering and death hidden from the public.[87] In November 2023, U.S. lawmakers asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate whether Neuralink deceived investors by omitting details about possible animal deaths.[88][89]

On March 21, 2024, Musk said that Neuralink's second product, Blindsight, was working in trials with monkeys. He said it operated at a low resolution that was expected to improve and that no monkey had died or been seriously injured due to a Neuralink device, contradicting earlier reports.[90] The New York Times reported that the Department of Agriculture was conducting an investigation into the alleged mistreatment of dozens of test monkeys and that in December 2024, Musk had posted a letter on X in which his lawyer informed him that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had reopened a separate investigation related to the alleged abuses. In January 2025, during the first week of his second term in office, President Donald Trump fired 17 inspectors general, including Phyllis Fong, who was responsible for the Agriculture Department's investigation.[91]

Both investigations were instigated by the nonprofit PCRM. In a December 2024 news release, PCRM wrote, "documents from the University of California, Davis, where Neuralink conducted monkey experiments from 2017 to 2020, reveal that implantation of the company's device caused debilitating health effects in monkeys, resulting in euthanasia. Animals experienced chronic infections, paralysis, swelling in the brain, loss of coordination and balance, and depression".[92] With recent changes in the SEC's leadership, the fate of these investigations is not clear. Musk has denied the allegations of abuse.[93]

Human testing

The FDA rejected Neuralink's 2022 application to pursue human clinical trials, citing "major safety concerns involving the device's lithium battery; the potential for the implant's tiny wires to migrate to other areas of the brain; and questions over whether and how the device can be removed without damaging brain tissue",[94] but then approved it in May 2023.[95] In September 2023, Neuralink began its first human trials under an investigational device exemption from the FDA.[96][97] The trials recruited people with quadriplegia due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).[98] The procedure was performed at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona.[99]

On January 29, 2024, Musk said that Neuralink had implanted Telepathy, a brain–computer interface (BCI) device, in a human on the previous day and that the patient was recovering from the surgery.[15] As it was a "first in human" and "early feasibility" trial to develop a concept, the company was not obligated to disclose details about the procedure or to prove safety or efficacy.[100] Neuralink provided a few details in February on the implant in a recruitment brochure for the Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface (PRIME) study.[101] On February 20, Musk said that Neuralink's first human trial participant had been able to control a computer mouse by thought.[102][103]

On March 20, 2024, through a livestream on X, Neuralink introduced the person who had received the first Neuralink implant in the clinical trial, 29-year-old Noland Arbaugh. Arbaugh had become a quadriplegic after a diving accident dislocated his C4 and C5 spinal vertebrae. Noland demonstrated his ability to move a cursor on a computer screen to allow him to control music and play games such as chess. He expressed support for the implant in improving his quality of life.[104] He acknowledged that the device was not perfect but said he was excited about the future.[105] In a subsequent interview, Arbaugh said that 85% of the device's implant threads had completely detached, as his brain had shifted approximately three times as much as Neuralink had expected.[106] In an August 23, 2025, Fortune article, Arbaugh was quoted as saying that he had regained much of the autonomy he lost from his disability and was able to do more things independently.[107]

The Wall Street Journal reported that Neuralink would proceed with a second trial participant.[106] The FDA had signed off on the company's proposed fixes for a problem that occurred with Arbaugh.[108] In August 2024, a chip was reportedly successfully implanted in the second participant, pseudonym "Alex".[109] Alex was reportedly able to create 3D designs by using the CAD software Autodesk Fusion and a custom mount for his Neuralink charger because of the implant.[110] Additional accounts show that he has been able to play first-person shooter games at a higher level than before.[111] Unlike Arbaugh's implantation procedure, Alex's reduced brain motion and placed the implant closer to the brain's surface in an attempt to mitigate thread retraction. Since the initial operation, Alex has reportedly not experienced any thread retraction.[111] In November 2024, Neuralink received approval from Health Canada for its first clinical trial in that country, to be led by Andres M. Lozano.[112]

As of September 2025, Musk had reported 12 trial participants with over 2,000 cumulative days and 15,000 hours of usage, up from the seven Barrow mentioned in June.[113] On 28 October 2025, University College London announced that Paul, the first UK patient to have a Neuralink implant inserted, had successfully controlled a computer by thought only hours after the implant procedure took place at UCL's hospital.[114]

Reception

Neuralink's development and demonstrations have elicited polarized responses from the public, scientific community, ethicists, and media outlets. The company's brain–computer interface (BCI) technology has been praised for its potential to restore autonomy to people with paralysis and sensory impairments, but Neuralink has faced significant criticism regarding animal testing practices, transparency in human trials, ethical implications of human enhancement, and the feasibility of its long-term claims.[115][116]

Public opinion

Public interest in Neuralink increased significantly after high-profile demonstrations, including the 2020 pig implant showcase and the 2021 video of a macaque playing the video game Pong with neural signals.[117] The first human implantation in January 2024, performed on Noland Arbaugh, generated widespread attention.[115] Arbaugh, who is quadriplegic, reported being able to control a computer cursor and play games using only his thoughts, saying the device had "given my life back".[118][119] By late 2025, Neuralink reported multiple patients using the implant, including the first recipient in the United Kingdom.[120]

On social media platforms such as X, responses have ranged from enthusiastic support for its potential to help the disabled to concerns about long-term safety, data privacy, and equitable access.[121]

Expert opinions

Neuroscientists have given mixed assessments. Some have praised Neuralink's engineering achievements, including its high channel count (up to 3,072 electrodes per implant) and fully wireless design.[122] The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted "breakthrough device" designation to Neuralink's Blindsight project in September 2024.[123]

Other experts have argued that many of Neuralink's technical accomplishments build on preexisting BCI research and do not represent fundamental breakthroughs.[124] In 2024, neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis said that similar multi-electrode recordings were achieved in his laboratory in the early 2000s.[citation needed]

Criticisms and controversies

Neuralink has faced substantial criticism over its animal testing practices. Between 2018 and 2022, at least 1,500 animals—including monkeys, pigs, and sheep—were used in experiments, with reports of complications leading to euthanasia in some cases.[125] The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, prompting an investigation.[126] Neuralink has said that animal testing followed regulatory standards and was necessary for development.[127]

In human trials, the first patient's implant experienced partial thread retraction in 2024, reducing the number of functional electrodes, though software updates restored much of the lost performance.[128] Bioethicists have raised concerns about informed consent, long-term patient support, and the absence of trial registration on ClinicalTrials.gov for some studies.[129]

Broader ethical debates include risks of hacking, loss of privacy, and potential misuse of neural data.[130]

Media coverage

Media coverage has been polarized. Outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and CNN have highlighted patient success stories and technical milestones,[131] while investigative reports in Wired, Reuters, and The Guardian have focused on animal welfare issues and regulatory scrutiny.[116][132] Some experts have called Musk's statements about future capabilities such as telepathy and brain uploading speculative or unrealistic.[133]

See also

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Further reading

  • Neuralink & Musk, Elon (2019-08-02). "An integrated brain-machine interface platform with thousands of channels". bioRxiv 10.1101/703801 (whitepaper)
  • Alkhouri, K. I. (2025). Neuralink's Brain-Computer Interfaces and the Reshaping of Religious-Psychological Experience. Conatus - Journal of Philosophy, 10(1), 9–56. https://doi.org/10.12681/cjp.38734