OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to take on Elon Musk's Neuralink with Merge Labs, here's what we know

It appears that the rivalry between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is going to enter a new frontier of human brain. As reported by Financial Times, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is co-founding a brain-computer interface startup called Merge Labs. The upcoming startup will compete against Elon Musk’s Neuralink as both the companies will not race to merge humans with artificial intelligence. As reported by Financial Times, Merge Labs is in the process of raising $850 million, with $250 million expected to come from OpenAI’s venture fund.OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will be the co-founder, however he is not said to be involved in day-to-day operations. The startup is reportedly also working with Alex Blania, CEO of Tools for Humanity, Altman’s other venture focused on biometric digital identity.Elon Musk founded Neuralink in 2016 and till now the company has made significant progress in developing brain implants which enable people with paralysis to control devices with the help of their thoughts. The Elon Musk-owned company recently raised $600 million at a $9 billion valuation and is conducting human trials.Merge Labs on the other hand, is reportedly working on less invasive brain interfaces with a strong emphasis on AI-powered enhancements. The focus of the startup is not just medical rehabilitation but broader human-AI integration.“I believe the merge has already started,” Altman wrote in a 2017 blog post. “We will be the first species ever to design our own descendants”.Elon Musk and Sam Altman are fighting again and publicly. In a heated escalation of their ongoing rivalry, Elon Musk and Sam Altman traded barbs over allegations of bias in Apple’s App Store rankings. The fight started after Musk, founder of xAI, posted on Twitter, accusing Apple of manipulating its App Store rankings to favor OpenAI’s ChatGPT, making it “impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1.” Musk labeled this an “unequivocal antitrust violation” and threatened immediate legal action against Apple. At the time, ChatGPT held the top spot on the U.S. App Store’s free apps list, while xAI’s Grok ranked fifth.To this, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman swiftly countered on X, calling Musk’s claims “remarkable” given allegations that Musk manipulates X’s algorithms to boost his own companies and suppress competitors. Altman referenced a 2023 Platformer report alleging Musk tweaked X’s algorithm to prioritize his tweets after a post by President Biden outperformed his. Altman challenged Musk to sign an affidavit denying such practices, promising an apology if Musk complied.