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’m not an expert, but I’ve been observing investment behavior for a while now. I’ve watched VC behavior, and the behavior of retail investors on the stock market. I’ve watched analysts, owned some stocks and worked with investor relations for a technology company, and I’ve participated in an IPO. I’ve also listened to executives talk about ‘valuations’ behind the scenes. Over time, I’ve become convinced that there is no real “market” operating the way that most people who advocate for the benefits of market dynamics define it. It’s not allocating capital based on anything related to merit and it isn’t efficient in any real way. These valuations are largely arbitrary and manipulated by a choreography of marketing, fraud, and the continuously nurtured delusions that some parts of the market (like journalists and analysts) are objective, and that the majority of normal investors are actually able to make informed decisions. In short, I have no confidence that Neuralink is actually worth that much. But, in the end, almost no one cares and almost no one participating in these “markets” has any interest in the supposed benefits to society that markets bring. That is why society keeps getting worse the longer it is being shaped by the parlor game that is our economy.
People have been making hats that can do what they claim neuralink can do for over a decade now, only the hats don’t require brain surgery.
Yep, I bought one like 10 years ago bc I thought it was cool. The fact that people are letting Elon musk insert a fucking chip in their brain to achieve the same tech that’s been available for over 10 years is just 🤯
You might enjoy this blog post someone linked in another thread earlier today https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-era-of-the-business-idiot/
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