OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman is preparing to co-found a brain-computer interface company, Merge Labs, which will compete against long-time rival Elon Musk‘ Neuralink.
The new company is targeting a valuation of about $850 million and is in early talks to raise as much as $250 million, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to Financial Times.
A significant portion of the funding is expected from OpenAI’s ventures arm, though the final investment decision has not been made.
Altman will be joined in the venture by Alex Blania, the head of Tools for Humanity, the firm behind the iris-scanning digital ID project World. Merge Labs’ focus will be the development of high-bandwidth brain-computer interfaces capable of enabling seamless communication between human thought and digital systems.
While Altman will not hold an operational role in the new company, his involvement stresses his long-standing fascination with “the merge”, the idea that humans and technology will eventually integrate to an extent that redefines human capability.
In 2017, he wrote: “Although the merge has already begun, it’s going to get a lot weirder. We will be the first species ever to design our own descendants.”
The venture comes at a time when Musk’s Neuralink is conducting human trials for patients with severe paralysis. Neuralink’s N1 chip, implanted using robotic surgery, allows users to control external devices purely with thought.
The company, which Musk founded in 2016, recently raised $650 million in a Series E round at a $9 billion valuation and has expanded its trials to the UK, Canada, and the UAE.
Merge Labs will face a competitive field beyond Neuralink, with firms such as Synchron, Paradromics, and Precision Neuroscience all pursuing commercial brain-computer interface applications. Synchron has already achieved integration with Apple systems, while Paradromics is preparing its first human trials.
The launch is expected to add another chapter to the rivalry between Altman and Musk. The two co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but parted ways in 2018 after disagreements over the organisation’s direction. Their exchanges have since spilled into public view, including recent arguments on X.
For Sam Altman, the Merge Labs is an expansion beyond AI. Alongside his leadership of OpenAI, now valued at about $300 billion, he has backed ventures in nuclear fusion (Helion), nuclear fission (Oklo), and global digital identity projects.
OpenAI has declined to comment on Merge Labs or the potential investment.
