ELON MUSK WANTS TO DEVELOP MORE BRAIN CHIPS

Sun 21 August 2022:

Elon Musk, a tech mogul, is thinking about investing in Synchron, a maker of brain chips that competes with his own comparable business, Neuralink, according to Reuters.

Musk has reached out to Synchron’s founder and CEO Thomas Oxley in recent weeks to explore a possible venture, four people familiar with the discussions told the outlet, while noting that the talks are far from finalized, and it is yet unclear whether a deal will be made.

Based in New York City, Synchron is several steps ahead of Neuralink in securing regulatory approval to test its brain implants in humans, receiving the green light from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last year. Before that, it conducted a separate round of human trials on four people in Australia, gleaning valuable data for future tests.

While Musk has repeatedly hinted at human tests for the Neuralink in the near future, they have yet to be authorized for that use and it is not known where the company currently stands in the regulatory process. In contrast to Synchron’s device, installing the Neuralink requires a major surgical operation involving cuts into the skull, possibly explaining the slower progress.

According to Reuters, Elon Musk had discussions with Paradromics Inc. in 2020 and this would not be the first time the billionaire had approached a competing brain technology firm. But those talks have already come to an end.

Neuralink is a substantially bigger company, with 300 employees and $363 million in financing since its founding in 2016, despite the seeming lack of progress with regulators. The same year it was founded, Synchron has 60 employees and a more modest $65 million in funding from investors.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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