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Elon Musk Neuralink's Startup Brain Tech has closed a financing round of $ 650 million, the company announced on Monday.
Ark Invest, Funders Fund, Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and other companies participated in the round, according to a press release. Neuralink said the new capital will help the company take its technology to more patients and develop new devices that “deepen the connection between biological and artificial intelligence.”
Neuralink is building a brain-computer interface, or BCI, which is a system that translates brain signals into commands for external technologies.
The company's first system, called telepathy, involves 64 “threads” that are inserted directly into the brain. The threads are thinner than a human hair and record neuronal signals through 1,024 electrodes, according to the Neuralink website.
The initial objective of technology is to help patients with severe paralysis to restore some independence. Until Monday, five patients have been implemented with Neuralink technology and can “control digital and physical devices with their thoughts,” the statement said.
Neuralink is currently carrying out four separate clinical trials around its telepathy system.
The BCI have been studied in the academy for decades, and several other companies, including Synchron, Paradromics and Precision Neuroscience, are developing their own systems.
Paradromics announced on Monday that he successfully implanted his BCI in a human for the first time.
It is not clear what devices that Neuralink will seek to develop below, but Musk has defended the great ambitions for the Brain Tech startup. He has even affirmed that he would be willing to obtain an implant himself.
One of the abilities that Musk has highlighted is the ability to restore vision to blind patients.
Neuralink received a designation of “innovative device” from the drug and food administration of the United States for a device called Watcht. This designation is granted to medical devices that have the potential to provide improved treatment for weakening or potentially mortal conditions.
In a publication on its social media platform X in September, Musk said that Blindsight will even allow those who have lost their eyes and their optical nerve to see.
Neuralink still has a long way ahead before you can market these technologies.
LOOK: Neuralink shares a video of the patient who reproduces chess using brain implant signs
