As per a filing with the SEC, Neuralink, the startup created by Elon Musk that is creating implantable devices that can read brain waves, has secured an extra $43 million in venture money. According to the document released this week, the business raised its last tranche in early August from $280M to $323M, with Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund leading the charge. Thirty-two investors took part, the document states. Neuralink has not recently revealed its value. However, after secretly completing stock exchanges, Reuters reported in June that the company’s valuation was about $5 billion.
Neuralink, a company founded in 2016, has developed a device like a sewing machine that can insert very fine threads into the brain. The threads fasten to a specially-made chip with sensors that can read data from clusters of neurons.
Neuralink Under A Lot Of Heat After Questionable Allegations
Implants that read brain signals have been around for decades. However, Neuralink’s purported novelty resides in the fact that more electrodes are implanted and that the devices are wireless. After having been denied earlier, Neuralink was granted FDA permission for human research in May and began recruiting for its initial studies using an experimental device exemption.
However, Neuralink is coming under more and more fire for what detractors claim to be unethical research procedures and a poisonous working atmosphere. An anonymous former employee highlighted a “culture of blame and fear” in a January 2022 Fortune story. The person stated that Musk often encouraged junior staff members “to email problems and grievances to him directly,” undermining management. Just three of the original eight scientists were still employed by the business in August 2020 as a consequence of an “internal conflict whereby rushed timelines… clashed against the slow and gradual pace of science,” according to a Stat News article.
