Has Neuralink made a breakthrough in brain implant technology?
Elon Musk's brain-computer interface firm Neuralink has released a video of its first patient, Noland Arbaugh, controlling a computer cursor with his thoughts - is this the future?
Neuralink, the brain-computer interface company founded by Elon Musk, has revealed the identity of its first patient, who says the firm’s implant has “changed his life”. However, it isn’t yet clear that Neuralink has done anything beyond replicating existing research efforts, experts say.
Who is Neuralink’s first patient?
Musk announced in January that the first human patient had received a Neuralink implant, but little detail was released at the time. We now know – from a livestream video by the company – who that individual is and how the tests are going.
Noland Arbaugh explains in the video that an accident eight years ago dislocated his fourth and fifth vertebrae, leaving him with quadriplegia. He previously controlled his computer with a mouth interface, but he is shown moving the cursor by thought alone, apparently with his Neuralink implant.
“It just became intuitive for me to start imagining the cursor moving,” says Arbaugh in the video. “Basically, it was like using ‘the force’ on the cursor and I could get it to move wherever I wanted, just stare somewhere in the screen and it would move where I wanted it to, which was such a wild experience.”
He claims to have been using the device to read, learn languages and play computer games, including chess, for up to 8 hours at a time – at which point he needs to recharge the device. “It’s not perfect, we have run into some issues. But it has already changed my life,” he says.
What does the implant involve?
Neuralink didn’t respond to a request for interview, but the company’s website says the current generation of coin-sized implant called N1 records neural activity through 1024 electrodes distributed across 64 threads that extend into the user’s brain. These are so fine that they must be installed by a surgical robot.
In the livestream video, Arbaugh says he was released from hospital the day after the implant operation and that the surgery was a relatively simple process from his point of view.
The implant, whose small battery is charged through the skin by an inductance charger, communicates wirelessly with an app on a smartphone.
Does this mean the first human trial has worked?
Reinhold Scherer at the University of Essex, UK, says it is too early to tell if Neuralink’s first human trial has succeeded because the company “does not publish enough information to form an informed opinion”.
“While the video looks impressive and no doubt required a lot of hard R&D work to get to this stage, it’s unclear whether what’s been shown is new or groundbreaking,” he says. “Control looks to be stable, but most of the research and experiments they have showed so far are mainly replicating past research. Replication is good, but there are still major challenges ahead.”
Who else is working on brain implants?
Neuralink is far from the only group investigating this idea. Many academic groups and commercial start-ups have already run human trials and succeeded in correctly interpreting brain signals into some kind of output.
One team at Stanford University in California placed two small sensors just under the surface of the brain of a man who is paralysed below the neck. Researchers could interpret the man’s brain signals when he thought of writing words with a pen on paper, and convert them into readable text on a computer.
We are a long way from this being a commercial product, with lots of testing and accreditation ahead, so it is too early to tell. But Musk has made it clear that he intends to commercialise the technology. The first planned product, named Telepathy, will allow anyone with an implant to control their phones and computers.
Elon Musk’s brain tech startup Neuralink has closed a $650 million funding round, the company announced Monday.
ARK Invest, Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and other firms participated in the round, according to a press release. Neuralink said the fresh capital will help the company bring its technology to more patients and develop new devices that “deepen the connection between biological and artificial intelligence.”
Neuralink is building a brain-computer interface, or BCI, which is a system that translates brain signals into commands for external technologies.
The company’s first system, called Telepathy, involves 64 “threads” that are inserted directly into the brain. The threads are thinner than a human hair and record neural signals through 1,024 electrodes, according to Neuralink’s website.
The initial aim of the technology is to help patients with severe paralysis restore some independence. As of Monday, five patients have been implanted with Neuralink’s technology, and are able to “control digital and physical devices with their thoughts,” the release said.
Neuralink is currently carrying out four separate clinical trials around its Telepathy system.
BCIs have been studied in academia for decades, and several other companies, including Synchron, Paradromics and Precision Neuroscience, are developing their own systems.
Paradromics on Monday announced it successfully implanted its BCI in a human for the first time.
It’s not clear what devices Neuralink will look to develop next, but Musk has for years espoused grand ambitions for the brain tech startup. He has even claimed that he would be willing to get an implant himself.
One of the capabilities Musk has repeatedly highlighted is the ability to restore vision to blind patients.
Neuralink received a “Breakthrough Device” designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a device called Blindsight. This designation is granted to medical devices that have the potential to provide improved treatment for debilitating or life-threatening conditions.
In a post on his social media platform X in September, Musk said Blindsight will enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see.
Neuralink still has a long road ahead before it can commercialize these technologies.
The Neuralink implant is a surgically-implanted brain-computer interface device designed to let users control a computer or mobile device using their brain activity. It is developed by Neuralink, a neurotechnology company founded by Elon Musk.
Neuralink is a neurotechnology company founded by Elon Musk that has built an implantable, brain-computer interface (BCI) capable of translating thought into action. Launched in 2016, the private venture claims its neural device will allow people with paraplegia to regain movement and restore vision to those born blind.
What Is Neuralink?
Neuralink is a company founded by Elon Musk in 2016 that’s developed a brain-computer interface (BCI) device called the N1 Implant or “the Link,” which is a surgically embedded neural-chip implant designed to decode and stimulate brain activity.
Neuralink implanted its first device in a patient’s brain in January 2024. The patient, who is paralyzed below the shoulders, has used the Neuralink device to play chess and is now using it to learn French and Japanese.
Neuralink is a neurotechnology company that has built a BCI device “designed to connect human brains directly to computers,” said Ramses Alcaide, CEO of Neurable, a neurotech company developing non-invasive, brain-computer interfaces in the form of headphones. “[Neuralink’s technology] is capable of recording and decoding neural signals and then transmitting information back to the brain using electrical stimulation.”
The implant is known as the N1 Implant or “the Link.” This coin-sized brain chip is surgically embedded under the skull, where it receives information from neural threads that fan out into different sections of a subject’s brain in control of motor skills. Each wire contains sensors capable of recording and emitting electrical currents that are “so fine that they can’t be inserted by the human hand,” according to Neuralink’s website. That’s why Neuralink has built a neurosurgical robot that’s designed to become fully automated.
The company has also developed a Neuralink-specific app that allows a person to manipulate a keyboard and mouse using only their mind.
“Neuralink is really at the vanguard of creating the commercialized, scalable versions of what has been pioneered in academia,” said Sumner Norman, a scientist at nonprofit startup Convergent Research and former chief brain-computer interface scientist at software firm AE Studio.
“There’s been decades of academic research to push this [field] as far as it can go,” he said, “but ultimately, it becomes a very expensive space to develop.”
How Does Neuralink Work?
Neuralink’s underlying technology works in the same way as electrophysiology, Norman explained.
The electrical chemical signals in our nervous system spark as neurons communicate with one another across gaps between nerve cells known as synapses. This brain activity is captured by electrodes, or sensors that detect voltages, measuring the change in “spikes” of when these voltages fire (or potentially fire).
In other words, our brain activity data is captured not only when we take action, but also if we think about taking action. That’s not to say the brain-computer interfacing that Neuralink does is on the same level as mind reading.
“It simply measures the brain activity and interprets it as an action,” said Sonal Baberwal, a Dublin City University-based researcher developing machine learning algorithms built into brain-computer interface wearables. “Similarly with your brain signals — eyes closed or opened, a relaxed or deep-sleep state, an action or focus state — all of these aspects can be detected.”
As these devices record complex data sets, machine learning algorithms and other artificial intelligence agents are then employed to make sense of the information.
What Will Neuralink Do?
According to Neuralink’s website, the company’s initial goal is to help those immobilized by paralysis regain lost communication skills. Down the line, it intends to pursue restoring motor, sensory and visual functions as well as treatment of neurological disorders.
“A Neuralink-like device has the potential to enhance human memory, processing speed and cognitive abilities by creating a direct interface between the human brain and digital devices,” Alcaide said.
Restore Mobility
Brain-computer interfaces can be used to control prosthetics or exoskeletons. This use case would enable people with paralysis or amputations to regain a certain level of mobility and independence, according to Alcaide.
Improve Communication for Non-Verbal Individuals
Neuralink’s main focus is to help people who are unable to speak or write communicate with others by allowing them to control a virtual mouse or keyboard or send messages by thought. For example, someone with paraplegia would be able to manipulate a computer or mobile device using speech or text synthesis to surf the web and create digital art.
Treat Neurological Conditions
By monitoring brain activity, brain-computer interfaces can also detect changes that may indicate neurological conditions such as epilepsy, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease, Alcaide said.
They can also be used to monitor mental health symptoms. Electrical stimulation could be delivered to targeted areas in the brain as a treatment for burnout, fatigue, anxiety and depression, which, unlike motor skills that are localized to one area, are spread throughout the brain, Norman noted.
“Treating or curing paralysis, neurological disorders and injuries could make the world a substantially nicer place, where very few people have untreatable forms of depression or anxiety,” said Norman, who has spent a decade developing brain-computer interfaces and neuroprosthetics for people with neurological injury or disease. “Giving agency back to those who’ve lost it — that’s an undeniable benefit.”
Enhance Cognitive Abilities
This tech can also help people improve their focus, memory and attention by allowing them to train their brain using real-time biofeedback and other techniques. In Musk’s words, the Link is a sort of “Fitbit in your skull” with “all the sensors you’d expect to see in a smartwatch.”
“If suddenly you could get every neuron in the human brain and sense them all at once, what would you actually do with that data? We don’t know,” Norman said. “There’s 80 billion neurons in the brain with about 1,000 synapses in between them — how do you interpret that kind of data?”
Neuralink’s technology is currently detecting up to 10,000 of these connections — a big step up from the hundreds being studied in academic trials, Norman said.
Is Neuralink FDA Approved?
Yes. Neuralink announced on May 25, 2023, that it received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for an in-human clinical trial. The company began recruiting for the trial in September of 2023 and continues to provide PRIME Study progress updates on its blog page.
In May 2025, Neuralink also announced that it received Breakthrough Device Designation from the FDA, a program that aims to expedite the development, assessment and review of medical devices, helping them reach patients and healthcare providers more quickly. The designation for Neuralink in particular is to help the company restore communication for individuals with severe speech impairment — specifically those affected by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), stroke, spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and other neurological conditions.
In other news, Precision Neuroscience, a brain-computer interface company and competitor to Neuralink, received FDA 510(k) clearance for its Layer 7 Cortical Interface BCI implant. The implant is intended to record, monitor and stimulate electrical activity on the surface of the brain for clinical applications, such as intraoperative brain mapping. Precision Neuroscience stated the FDA clearance “marks the first full regulatory clearance granted to a company developing a next-generation wireless BCI.”
Is Neuralink Being Used on Humans?
Yes. A human patient, 29-year-old Noland Arbaugh, received the first Neuralink implant on January 28, 2024. In a May 2024 blog post, Neuralink reported that, in the weeks following the surgery, Arbaugh had been successfully using the implant to control his laptop while lying down in bed. Although threads retracted from Arbaugh’s brain early on, they have since stabilized.
In August 2024, a second human patient named Alex also received the Neuralink implant, this time without any threads retracting. He has used Neuralink to play the first-person shooter game Counter-Strike 2, being able to simultaneously control a mouse and keyboard to perform more seamless gameplay.
In January 2025, Bradford Smith became the third human patient — plus the first patient with ALS and first non-verbal patient — to receive a Neuralink implant. Smith stated in a video on X that he cannot move a majority of his body due to ALS, though he is able to type, click, move his mouse cursor and even play Mario Kart with his thoughts by using Neuralink.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Neuralink actually do?
Neuralink is a brain implant that can monitor and stimulate brain activity using electrical currents.
Neuralink aims to help people with paralysis communicate by allowing them to remotely control devices using brain activity. In the future, Neuralink may help enhance user memory and cognitive abilities, restore a user's motor, sensory and visual functions as well as treat neurological disorders.
What are the risks of Neuralink?
The potential risks of Neuralink include:
Brain injury or infection
Physical side effects like bleeding, headaches, nausea or seizures
Psychological side effects like mood changes
Allergic reaction to implanted materials
Movement of implanted threads and wires to other parts of the brain
Cybersecurity, hacking and privacy vulnerabilities
Unknown long-term effects of use
Who is eligible for Neuralink?
To be eligible for participation in the Neuralink clinical trial — known as the PRIME Study — participants must:
Have quadriplegia (limited function in all 4 limbs) due to spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and are at least 1-year post-injury (without improvement)
Be at least 22 years old
Have a consistent and reliable caregiver
How many humans have Neuralink?
As of May 2025, three people have received a Neuralink implant.
How expensive is a Neuralink?
There is currently no publicly available price for Neuralink and its required procedure. However, the Neuralink implant is estimated to cost $10,500 in examinations, parts and labor, with the cost from insurance companies expected to reach up to $50,000.
Paradromics has implanted its brain-computer interface in a human for the first time.
The procedure took place at the University of Michigan with a patient who was already undergoing neurosurgery to treat epilepsy.
The company said the procedure demonstrated that its system can be safely implanted and record neural activity.
Neurotech startup Paradromics on Monday announced it has implanted its brain-computer interface in a human for the first time.
The procedure took place May 14 at the University of Michigan with a patient who was already undergoing neurosurgery to treat epilepsy. The company's technology was implanted and removed from the patient's brain in about 20 minutes during that surgery.
Paradromics said the procedure demonstrated that its system can be safely implanted and record neural activity. It's a major milestone for the nearly 10-year-old startup, as it marks the beginning of its next chapter as a clinical-stage company.
Once regulators give it the green light, Paradromics plans to kick off a clinical trial later this year that will study the long-term safety and use of its technology in humans.
"We've shown in sheep that our device is best in class from a data and longevity standpoint, and now we've also shown that it's compatible with humans," Paradromics founder and CEO Matt Angle told CNBC in an interview. "That's really exciting and raises a lot of excitement for our upcoming clinical trial."
A brain-computer interface, or BCI, is a system that deciphers brain signals and translates them into commands for external technologies. Paradromics' system is called the Connexus Brain-Computer Interface, and the company says it will initially help patients with severe motor impairments such as paralysis speak through a computer.
Paradromics' BCI has not been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and it still has a long road ahead before it reaches commercialization.
But for Angle, who founded the company in 2015, the procedure in May was a success, and one that was years in the making.
"You do all of these steps, you validate the hardware, you have this really high degree of rational certainty that things are going to work," he said, "but still emotionally when it works and when it happens the way you expected it to, it's still very, very gratifying."
Though Paradromics' BCI has not been officially cleared for use by regulators, organizations like the University of Michigan can use new devices for research as long as they can demonstrate that there is not a significant risk to patients.
Dr. Oren Sagher, professor of neurosurgery at the University of Michigan, oversaw the traditional clinical component of the procedure in May. Dr. Matthew Willsey, assistant professor of neurosurgery and biomedical engineering at the University of Michigan, led the research component, including the placement of Paradromics' device.
BCIs have been studied in academia for decades, and several other startups, including Elon Musk's Neuralink, are developing their own systems.
"It's absolutely thrilling," Willsey said in an interview. "It's motivating, and this is the kind of thing that helps me get up in the morning and go to work."
Each company's BCI is slightly different, but Paradromics is designing a BCI that can record brain activity at the level of individual neurons.
Angle compared this approach to placing microphones inside vs. outside a stadium. Inside a stadium, microphones would capture more detail, such as individual conversations. Outside a stadium, microphones would only capture the roar of the crowd, he said.
Other prominent BCI companies include Synchron, which is backed by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, and Precision Neuroscience. Both have implanted their systems in humans.
Paradromics has raised nearly $100 million as of February, according to PitchBook. The company announced a strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia's Neom in February, but declined to disclose the investment amount.
"The last demonstration stuff has been shown, and we're really excited about the clinical trial that's coming up," Angle said.
Synchron is part of an emerging crop of companies testing technology in the brain-computer interface industry.
The system is implanted through the blood vessels and allows patients to operate technology using only their minds.
“It helps them engage in ways that we take for granted,” Synchron CEO Tom Oxley said.
In a Brooklyn lab stuffed with 3D printers and a makeshift pickleball court, employees at a brain interface startup called Synchron are working on technology designed to transform daily life for people with paralysis.
The Synchron Switch is implanted through the blood vessels to allow people with no or very limited physical mobility to operate technology such as cursors and smart home devices using their mind. So far, the nascent technology has been used on three patients in the U.S. and four in Australia.
“I’ve seen moments between patient and partner, or patient and spouse, where it’s incredibly joyful and empowering to have regained an ability to be a little bit more independent than before,” Synchron CEO Tom Oxley told CNBC in an interview. “It helps them engage in ways that we take for granted.”
Founded in 2012, Synchron is part of the burgeoning brain-computer interface, or BCI, industry. A BCI is a system that deciphers brain signals and translates them into commands for external technologies. Perhaps the best-known name in the space is Neuralink, thanks to the high profile of founder Elon Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla
, SpaceX and Twitter.
But Musk isn’t the only tech billionaire wagering on the eventual transition of BCI from radical science experiment to flourishing medical business. In December, Synchron announced a $75 million financing round that included funding from the investment firms of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
‘More scalable’v
In August 2020, the Food and Drug Administration granted Synchron the Breakthrough Device designation, which is for medical devices that have the potential to provide improved treatment for debilitating or life-threatening conditions. The following year, Synchron became the first company to receive an Investigational Device Exemption from the FDA to conduct trials of a permanently implantable BCI in human patients.
Synchron is enrolling patients in an early feasibility trial, which aims to show that the technology is safe to put in humans. Six patients will be implanted with Synchron’s BCI during the study, and Chief Commercial Officer Kurt Haggstrom said the company is currently about halfway through.
The company has no revenue yet, and a spokesperson said Synchron isn’t commenting on how much the procedure will eventually cost.
While many competitors have to implant their BCIs through open-brain surgery, Synchron relies on a less invasive approach that builds on decades of existing endovascular techniques, the company said.
Synchron’s BCI is inserted through the blood vessels, which Oxley calls the “natural highways” into the brain. Synchron’s stent, called the Stentrode, is fitted with tiny sensors and is delivered to the large vein that sits next to the motor cortex. The Stentrode is connected to an antenna that sits under the skin in the chest and collects raw brain data that it sends out of the body to external devices.
Peter Yoo, senior director of neuroscience at Synchron, said since the device is not inserted directly into the brain tissue, the quality of the brain signal isn’t perfect. But the brain doesn’t like being touched by foreign objects, Yoo said, and the less invasive nature of the procedure makes it more accessible.
“There’s roughly about 2,000 interventionalists who can perform these procedures,” Yoo told CNBC. “It’s a little bit more scalable, compared to, say, open-brain surgery or burr holes, which only neurosurgeons can perform.”
For patients with severe paralysis or degenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, Synchron’s technology can help them regain their ability to communicate with friends, family and the outside world, whether through typing, texting or even accessing social media.
Patients can use Synchron’s BCI to shop online and manage their health and finances, but Oxley said what often excites them the most is text messaging.
“Losing the ability to text message is incredibly isolating,” Oxley said. “Restoring the ability to text message loved ones is a very emotional restoration of power.”
In December 2021, Oxley handed over his Twitter account to a patient named Philip O’Keefe, who has ALS and struggles to move his hands. About 20 months earlier, O’Keefe was implanted with Synchron’s BCI.
v
“hello, world! Short tweet. Monumental progress,” O’Keefe tweeted on Oxley’s page, using the BCI.
Synchron’s technology has caught the attention of its competitors. Musk approached the company to discuss a potential investment last year, according to a Reuters report. Synchron declined to comment about the report. Neuralink didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Neuralink is developing a BCI that’s designed to be inserted directly into the brain tissue, and while the company is not testing its device in humans yet, Musk has said he hopes it will do so this year.
Haggstrom said his company’s funding will help accelerate Synchron’s product development and push it toward a pivotal clinical trial that would bring the company closer to commercialization.
Khosla Ventures partner Alex Morgan, who led an earlier financing round, said that while Synchron’s device may seem like something out of science fiction, it’s grounded in “real science” and is already making a significant difference in patients’ lives.
“Synchron is actually helping people as of right now, today,” he said in an interview. “That, to me, is really exceptional.”
In January, the medical journal JAMA Neurology published the peer-reviewed, long-term safety results from a trial of Synchron’s BCI system in Australia. The study found that the technology remained safe and didn’t deteriorate in signal quality or performance over a 12-month period.
v
“That was a huge publication for us,” Haggstrom said.
Haggstrom said commercialization is key for all the players in the industry.
“I always like to be competitive, and so for me, being first to market is critical,” Haggstrom said. “We meet future patients to talk to about their needs and stuff, and so when you see that, and you talk to these families and the caregivers, you want to race as fast as you can to provide them assistance in their daily life.”
Also:
Elon Musk’s Neuralink raises $650 million in fresh capital
Also:
What Is Neuralink? What We Know So Far.
Also:
Neuralink competitor Paradromics completes first human implant
Also:
Brain implant startup backed by Bezos and Gates is testing mind-controlled computing on humans