{"id":78435,"date":"2025-08-13T00:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T00:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/78435\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T00:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T00:43:07","slug":"openai-considering-investment-to-connect-brains-and-computers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/78435\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI Considering Investment to Connect Brains and Computers"},"content":{"rendered":"

OpenAI<\/a> is reportedly in talks to invest in a new venture that aims to connect human brains with computers.<\/p>\n

The venture, Merge Labs, seeks to raise $250 million at an $850 million valuation, and much of the funding is expected to come from OpenAI\u2019s venture team, the Financial Times (FT)\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0Tuesday (Aug. 12), citing unnamed sources.<\/p>\n

OpenAI CEO\u00a0Sam Altman<\/a>\u00a0has encouraged the investment and will co-found the venture, though he will not personally invest and will not be involved in its day-to-day operations, according to the report.<\/p>\n

OpenAI did not immediately reply to PYMNTS\u2019 request for comment.<\/p>\n

The FT report said the new venture would compete with\u00a0Elon Musk<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0Neuralink<\/a>, which was founded in 2016 and raised $650 million at a\u00a0$9 billion valuation earlier this year.<\/p>\n

When Musk launched Neuralink, it was reported that he wanted to develop a \u201cneural lace\u201d that would be surgically connected to a\u00a0human brain<\/a> and give a person the ability to connect with a computer without having to use a keyboard, mouse or trackpad.<\/p>\n

One application explored by Neuralink includes how brain interfaces can relieve symptoms of chronic and dangerous medical conditions like epilepsy, severe depressive disorder and Parkinson\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Neuralink announced in June that it raised $650 million in a Series E funding round and said it had made significant progress toward building\u00a0brain interfaces<\/a> \u201cto help restore independence and expand what\u2019s possible for humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFive individuals with severe paralysis are now using Neuralink to control digital and physical devices with their thoughts, marking a profound step toward helping restore independence,\u201d the company said in a June 2 press release.<\/p>\n

In April 2024,\u00a0Tether<\/a>, the company behind the stablecoin USDT, announced a $200 million investment that granted it a majority stake in\u00a0brain-computer-interface<\/a>\u00a0technology firm\u00a0Blackrock Neurotech<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tether said at the time that Blackrock Neurotech is developing technologies that enable direct communication between the human brain and external devices and that the technology\u2019s potential applications include helping people use only their thoughts to operate robotic arms, maneuver wheelchairs, surf the web or drive a car.<\/p>\n

Paolo Ardoino<\/a>, CEO at Tether, said \u201cthe Brain-Computer-Interfaces of Blackrock Neurotech have the potential to open new realms of communication, rehabilitation and cognitive enhancement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OpenAI is reportedly in talks to invest in a new venture that aims to connect human brains with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[191,3105,43143,55332,3,1283,3300,74,3301],"class_list":{"0":"post-78435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-computing","8":"tag-computing","9":"tag-digital-transformation","10":"tag-healthtech","11":"tag-merge-labs","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-openai","14":"tag-pymnts-news","15":"tag-technology","16":"tag-whats-hot"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}