Elon Musk’s Neuralink on Monday raised $650M in its latest funding round as its brain implant device enters clinical trials. The Series E round drew participation from ARK Invest, Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and QIA.
Neuralink announced Monday that its flagship BCI product, Telepathy, had already been implanted into five patients with severe paralysis, and they all could control external devices. Neuralink is running four clinical trials across three countries and has received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Breakthrough Device designation for a vision-restoring product (Blindsight) and a speech restoration system.
Neuralink last raised a $280 million Series D funding round in 2023, with an additional $43 million tranche added months later. Semafor reported last week that this latest deal values Neuralink at around $9 billion.
Neuralink promises ‘independence for those with unmet medical needs’
We’re excited to announce our $650M Series E fundraising with participation from key investors including ARK Invest, DFJ Growth, Founders Fund, G42, Human Capital, Lightspeed, QIA, Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, amongst others.
We’re building…
— Neuralink (@neuralink) June 2, 2025
The BCI startup claimed that the latest funding would help the company bring its technology to more people, restoring independence for those with unmet medical needs and pushing the boundaries of what was possible with brain interfaces.
The Neuralink team said it was testing its implant, which is intended to help people with spinal cord injuries. The device 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.
Neuralink also announced it was hiring engineers and operators across disciplines who wanted to make a real-world impact. It added that the new funding would accelerate its efforts to expand patient access and innovate future devices that deepened biological and AI connections.
Tech startup outlines notable progress since the 2023 Series D funding
Musk’s BCI tech company disclosed that in addition to helping five individuals with severe paralysis to control digital and physical devices with their thoughts, it was also pursuing new ways for applying Neuralink technology to use cases beyond digital device control.
The company also added that clinical trials were already up and running at different institutions for neurosurgical care spanning two continents, including Barrow Neurological Institute, The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the University of Miami, University Health Network (Toronto Western Hospital), and Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. The Neuralink team said the company had invested heavily in expanding the number of neurons and brain regions its device interfaced with to unlock new dimensions of human potential.
Musk has repeatedly described future capabilities, such as enabling blind people to see via blindsight, even those lacking functional optic nerves. He also publicly committed to receiving a Neuralink implant himself.
Despite this bold vision, Neuralink faces stiff competition from rival Paradromics, which recently announced implanting its Connexus device into a patient for roughly 10 minutes during a scheduled epilepsy resection surgery to test its safety and ability to record neural signals. Paradromics claims its platform supports faster data transfer rates and longer device lifespans than Neuralink’s.
Paradromics also explained that its implants use 420 tiny needles to access individual neurons, offering potentially higher signal quality for tasks such as speech decoding. It recently disclosed plans to launch a full clinical trial by year-end focused on restoring communication for people with conditions like ALS, stroke, or spinal cord injury.
Neuralink’s flagship product, Telepathy, uses ultra-thin flexible threads, each thinner than a human hair, embedded directly in the brain. According to the company’s team, these threads house 1,024 electrodes that capture neural signals and relay them wirelessly to external devices such as computers or phones. The goal is to allow individuals with severe paralysis to control digital and physical tools using only their thoughts.
Other BCI competitors include Synchron, which places its device in blood vessels near the brain, and Precision Neuroscience, whose system sits atop the brain rather than penetrating it. Both alternatives favor less invasive methods but may offer lower resolution than the neuron-level access used by Neuralink and Paradromics.
If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter.
