SAN FRANCISCO, July 30 — Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s brain-chip startup, Neuralink, has raised US$205 million (RM868 million) in a funding round led by Dubai-based venture capital firm Vy Capital, with participation from Alphabet Inc’s Google Ventures, the company said on Thursday.
Neuralink aims to implant wireless brain computer chips to help cure neurological conditions including Alzheimer’s, dementia and spinal cord injuries and fuse humankind with artificial intelligence.
The company released a video in April showing a male macaque playing a videogame “Mind Pong” after getting chips embedded on each side of its brain.
“First @Neuralink product will enable someone with paralysis to use a smartphone with their mind faster than someone using thumbs,” Musk tweeted in June.
“The device is implanted flush with skull & charges wirelessly, so you look & feel totally normal,” he added.
Valor Equity Partners, Craft Ventures and Founders Fund also participated in the series C funding round.
Co-founded by Musk in 2016, San Francisco-based Neuralink will use the funds to take its first product, N1 Link, to the market, and for research and development.
Musk has a history of bringing together diverse experts to develop technology previously limited to academic labs through companies such as Tesla Inc, SpaceX and Boring Co.
SpaceX, a private space company, said in an amended regulatory filing in April, it had raised about US$1.16 billion in equity financing. — Reuters
