According to Engadget (via Reuters), Elon Musk is seeking to close a deal with Synchron, which is one of the Neuralink rivals in the brain-machine interfaces market.
These days, Elon Musk is making the headlines constantly. The richest man on the planet has recently backed out of the Twitter $44 billion deal and sparked litigation with the company. He now wants to do something unusual and invest in one of his company’s competitors.
Of course, it’s unclear whether Musk wants to start a collaboration with Synchron or inject a part of his billion into it. Both sides have not yet responded to the news. However, Musk recently expressed his displeasure with the slow pace of progress on Neuralink. Investing in Synchron or starting a collaboration with them could help Musk to accelerate his brain-machine interface programs. Synchron is still evaluating the offer and hasn’t responded to it.
This is not the first time Elon Musk has been looking to invest in Neuralink rivals. Back in 2020, he reached Paradromics for a potential investment. However, they could never reach an agreement.
Elon Musk wants to invest in Synchron
Neuralink is one of the youngest Musk companies that was founded in 2016 to develop brain-machine interfaces. The company has already showcased its latest achievements through a Macaque monkey playing the Pong game. Neuralink also sought to start human trials in 2020, and back in January of this year, their job posting showed they were looking to hire a clinical trial director. Human testing of the brain-machine interfaces requires FDA approval.
On the other hand, it seems that Synchron has surpassed Neuralink in the field of human trials. Dates back to July, the company announced the successful implementation of its brain-computer interface into the motor cortex of a human patient in the US. Synchron also confirmed the health of four people in Australia who had implants placed in their heads a year ago.
Moreover, Synchron has recently hired Neuralink co-founder Max Hodak, who left the company in 2021. Hodak has an advisory role in Synchron and has also invested a part of his own assets in it
2022-08-24 15:06:57