Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink raised $600 million in a deal that values the company at $9 billion before the new cash, Semafor reported on Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Neuralink did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The startup was estimated to be valued at $5 billion in 2023, based on privately executed stock trades described to Reuters. The company had previously raised $280 million in a funding round led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.
In April, Bloomberg News reported that the company was planning to raise about $500 million. Neuralink is in the process of testing its implant, which is intended to help people with spinal cord injuries. The device has allowed the first patient to play video games, browse the internet, post on social media and move a cursor on his laptop directly with his brain.
Earlier this month, Neuralink received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s “breakthrough” tag for its device.
Musk has expressed grand ambitions for the company, saying its chip would allow healthy and disabled people alike to pop into neighborhood facilities for speedy surgical insertions of devices to treat obesity, autism, depression and schizophrenia. He even sees them being used for web-surfing and telepathy.
I mean I don’t believe there is anything that makes it worth that value, but there are people who will fall prey to the hype. Maybe less so now that Elon has destroyed his Brand and can’t even move Teslas, but it is concerning that he was given this FDA certification and also seems to have potentially been kind of rewarded to keep quiet and disappear from the administration.
The economy is absolutely in the toilet right now, then suddenly the same day he and Trump break up, somebody invests $600M in his shitty biotech that can’t even stay glued in place?
Not to mention, this seems to have happened within days of a competitor company announcing they will be launching their own neural chip by the end of the year