Elon Musk’s Rival, Sam Altman, Launches Merge Labs to Compete in Brain Technology

Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO and known for ChatGPT, is entering the brain-computer interface market, setting up a challenge to Elon Musk’s Neuralink. Altman’s new venture, Merge Labs, is preparing to compete with Neuralink. This startup’s valuation is estimated to be around $850 million (approximately 7,434 crore). Funding is likely to come from OpenAI’s ventures branch, though the final details are still pending. Alex Blania, who heads Tools for Humanity, is also involved. Tools for Humanity is associated with eye-scanning devices that verify human identity. The company is also behind a biometric ID project, which aims to place eye-scanning technology in public locations across the US and UK. Neuralink, established in 2016, develops brain-implantable chips. These chips would allow severely paralyzed people to control devices using their thoughts. Neuralink is currently conducting human trials and secured $600 million in funding earlier this year, bringing its valuation to $9 billion. Both companies aim to create transformative technologies that will change human interaction with machines.