Reuters: Musk wants to buy rival brain implant startup

Billionaire Elon Musk has approached a competitor of his own startup, Neuraling, to buy it. This is reported by Reuters news agency based on insiders. Like Neuraling, Synchron is involved in brain implants that people can use to control computers. However, the company is close to FDA approval to allow its products to actually be implanted in patients.

It’s unclear whether Synchron’s founder is interested in Musk’s rapprochement. It is also not clear whether the world’s richest man is after the takeover or the collaboration.

Musk, who is also the chief executive of electric car maker Tesla and aerospace company SpaceX, has reportedly expressed dissatisfaction with Neuralink’s employees recently over slow progress. He founded Neuraling in 2016 and said he wanted to get FDA approval by 2020, three years later. Last year, Musk said he hoped to test it in humans this year.

Synchron was founded in 2016. That company’s brain implant can be implanted into a patient without cutting into the skull. This is necessary for the solution of Neuraling. Synchron has already installed its first implant in a patient in the US. The company has already tested its implant on four people in Australia.

This isn’t the first time Musk has reached out to NeuraLing’s competitor. Two years ago, he had conversations with Pandronics, but broke them off again.