As someone who has been eyeing technology trends as a developer for 5 years, not much has excited me to the core like Neuralink. This brain-computer interface (BCI) technology is one of the most ambitious yet at the intersection of neuroscience and computing, representing a potential investment opportunity in what may develop into a multi-billion dollar industry.
Neuralink’s Revolutionary BCI Technology
Neuralink was started by SpaceX and Tesla-mogul Elon Musk back in 2016, and they have created impressive brain-computer interface technology that is far more advanced than any other neural engineering that has come out so far.
Neuralink’s basic technology is a “Link” device implantable “coin-sized device” that can be used to decode and stimulate brain activity by ultra-thin electrode threads. Each of these threads is masterfully delicate (550 microns wide and 46 microns thick), thinner than a strand of human hair, and contains 32 channels of neural recording per thread.
How Neuralink’s approach differs from traditional BCIs:
- Easily one of the most unbelievable advances in robotics is the ability to insert ultra-thin threads with previously unheard-of accuracy into such a small area.
- The wireless implementation also removes the physical connectors that penetrate the skull
- More High-Density channel than competing technologies
- Complete integrated system for production, handling, and implantation
New Milestones and Human Trials
On January 2024, Neuralink successfully completed its first human implantation that recorded signals from a paralyzed patient below the shoulders. Since then, this patient has shown incredible capabilities:
- Virtual Reality Chess Awards played using mental commands
- Studying foreign languages such as French and Japanese
Thanks to this success, Neuralink has moved to the next phase of development, performing a total of three human implantations through January 2025. A major overhaul came that same month, when Elon Musk, in a weird bout of Candid Camera-esque corporate coordination unveiling announced that the company would be fast-tracking human trials, with 20 to 30 new procedures planned for the coming year.
Musk also touted technological advancements for the devices, like “more electrodes, higher bandwidth and longer battery life” — a sign that Neuralink is prioritizing iterative development.
Medical and Commercial Applications
Current Medical Focus
| Application | Current Status | Potential Impact |
| Paralysis treatment | Human trials underway | Restoring movement control through thought |
| Blindsight | Animal trials demonstrating feasibility | Visual restoration even with damaged eyes/optic nerves |
| Traumatic brain injuries | Under development | Restoring damaged neural pathways |
| Spinal cord injuries | Conceptual dual-implant approach | Potentially enabling walking by bridging damaged sections |
The main medical use case for Neuralink technology is providing functionality for paralyzed people. Initial demonstrations have shown that patients can move computer cursors, play video games and even post on social media using only their thoughts.
Future Commercial Expansion
Neuralink’s technology has potential applications in multiple commercial sectors, even if current applications are limited to addressing medical needs:
- Augmented communication — boosting human bandwidth beyond natural abilities
- Faster learning – getting information or skills more quickly
- Workplace productivity – empowering new modes of collaboration for knowledge workers
- Entertainment and gaming — building completely new interactive experiences
The Growing Neurotech Market
The neurotechnology market represents one of the fastest-growing segments within healthcare technology. According to market research, the global neurotech devices market was valued at approximately $10.8 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach $34.8 billion by 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.3%.
This growth is driven by:
- Rising incidence of neurological conditions globally
- Substantial investments from both national and international authorities
- Introduction of technologically advanced products
Within the broader neurotech market, the brain-computer interface segment specifically is expected to see substantial growth, with projections suggesting the overall BCI market could reach a value of over $1.6 billion by 2045.
Elon Musk’s Visionary Leadership
Elon Musk’s involvement in Neuralink represents more than just financial backing—it embodies his long-term vision for humanity’s technological evolution. As the driving force behind transformative companies like Tesla and SpaceX, Musk has demonstrated an ability to revolutionize established industries.
Musk’s motivation for founding Neuralink stems partly from his concerns about artificial intelligence potentially outpacing human capabilities. He has described Neuralink as creating a “digital layer above the cortex” that would establish “symbiosis with artificial intelligence.”
Beyond addressing AI concerns, Musk envisions Neuralink as a platform for human enhancement, describing the technology as “something analogous to a video game, like a saved game situation, where you are able to resume and upload your last state.”
Ethical and Regulatory Considerations
Regulatory Progress
Neuralink’s path to human trials faced initial regulatory challenges. In 2022, the FDA rejected the company’s first application for human trials, citing safety concerns including:
- The device’s lithium battery
- Potential for implant wires to migrate in the brain
- Questions about device removal without damaging tissue
After addressing these concerns, Neuralink received FDA approval for human clinical trials in May 2023 through an investigational device exemption.
Ethical Challenges
Several ethical considerations arise with neural interface technology:
- Data privacy – devices access extremely sensitive neural activity data
- Physical risks – potential for infection, bleeding, and damage to brain tissue
- Long-term effects – unknown impacts on cognition, personality, and mood
- Social equity – potential to create new forms of inequality based on enhancement capabilities
Things to consider for investment opportunities
Being a private company, Neuralink shares aren’t offered publicly, and therefore direct investments aren’t available. The company has held six rounds of funding since opening its doors, and while Forge Data values it at $686.2 million, its post-money valuation was thought to be between $1 billion and $10 billion as at August 2023.
Other route that could be investments:
- Investing in publicly listed companies that are developing analogous technologies
- You have data only until October 2023.
- For a possible future public offering (although “Neuralink has not publicly endorsed plans to take part in an IPO”)
Risk Factors
- There are a number of challenges that make the realistic implementation of neural interfaces difficult.
- Impediments of regulation and the approval process being arbitrary
- Uncertainty about timeline for commercially viable products
- The civil distortion may be slowing adoption due to moral and societal opposition
- A competitive landscape with multiple companies chasing similar technologies
Potential Rewards
- Primary Market Breakdown for Treating Paralysis, Blindness, and Neurological Disorders
- First-mover advantage in acquiring valuable intellectual property
- Similar evolution of platform potential to smartphones beyond communication
- A transformative impact – inventing markets and use cases.
Future Outlook
Near-term work will probably center around fine-tuning existing applications for paralysis patients while diversifying to other medical conditions. The long-term applications focus on extending human capabilities, creativity, and communication, which could eventually change many aspects of the human experience.
There’s no denying that the human-neural integration technology would be a major catalyst to our next-gen evolution as a species, bringing with it not just possibilities but a slew of challenges around access equity, identity, privacy and even the very definition of what it means to be human.
With uncertainty and long timelines common among all new technologies, few technological frontiers offer greater scope for transformational impact — on both human and technological potential — than the direct linkages of human cognition and computing that Neuralink aims to establish.
Conclusion
Neuralink is among the most ambitious projects in a fledgling field known as brain-computer interfaces, which holds promise for revolutionizing medicine and the way humans interact with computers. Leading the company in recent years, under Elon Musk’s direction, it has reached major technical advances that puts it at the front of an expanding neurotech industry.
As a private entity, its miserly investment prospects for now, but Neuralink is one to watch for frontier technology investors. The next few years will be pivotal in establishing whether the company can leap over serious hurdles in a world of murky ethics and regulations that any such technology will always create.
