Neuralink is an American neurotechnology company founded in 2016 by 📝Elon Musk and eight co-founders that develops implantable brain-computer interfaces, devices that read neural signals so people with paralysis can control computers and phones with their thoughts. It is a private company, majority-owned by Musk and separate from 📝SpaceX, and is based in Fremont, 📝California.
Neuralink's implant, placed by its R1 surgical robot, received FDA approval for human trials in May 2023. In January 2024 it implanted its first patient, Noland Arbaugh, a quadriplegic man who went on to move an on-screen pointer and play video games by thought, though many of the implant's threads later retracted from his brain; by September 2025 its trials had grown to 12 participants, with sites in Canada and the United Kingdom. Its first product, Telepathy, targets motor control, while Blindsight, which received the FDA's breakthrough-device designation in September 2024, aims to restore vision. The company has drawn scrutiny over animal deaths in its research and a reopened SEC inquiry into its disclosures about them. It was valued at about $9 billion in 2025, and Musk has said it will move to high-volume production and largely automated surgery in 2026.