OpenAI backs Sam Altman’s brain-computer interface startup Merge Labs

OpenAI has invested an undisclosed amount in Merge Labs, a brain-computer interface (BCI) startup backed by its own chief executive Sam Altman, adding another layer to the increasingly circular web of deals around the world’s most influential artificial intelligence company.

Merge Labs, which describes itself as a research lab focused on “bridging biological and artificial intelligence to maximize human ability,” emerged from stealth on January 15.

The investment deepens Altman’s growing footprint across frontier technologies and sharpens his rivalry with Elon Musk, whose startup Neuralink is also building brain-computer interfaces that allow people with paralysis to control devices using their thoughts.

“Progress in interfaces enables progress in computing,” OpenAI said in a statement announcing its participation. “Brain-computer interfaces are an important new frontier. They open new ways to communicate, learn, and interact with technology.”

Merge Labs says it is developing fundamentally new approaches to BCIs that aim to dramatically increase bandwidth while making the technology far less invasive. Unlike existing implant-based systems, the company is pursuing techniques that connect with neurons using molecules instead of electrodes and transmit information using deep-reaching modalities such as ultrasound.

The lab’s stated ambition is to build interfaces that combine biology, devices and AI into a form factor that is safe, scalable and accessible. Its founders include researchers Mikhail Shapiro, Tyson Aflalo and Sumner Norman, alongside technology entrepreneurs Alex Blania, Sandro Herbig and Altman in a personal capacity.

AI will play a central role in Merge’s research, OpenAI said, helping accelerate work across bioengineering, neuroscience and device development, while also enabling AI operating systems that can interpret intent and operate reliably using limited and noisy neural signals.

OpenAI has also signed commercial agreements with companies Altman personally owns or chairs, including nuclear fusion startup Helion Energy and nuclear fission company Oklo.

Merge Labs said it plans to operate initially as a research lab, with the long-term goal of developing products that can restore lost abilities in patients with neurological injuries or disease before expanding into broader human-augmentation use cases.