OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman is reported to be co-founding a new brain-computer interface company, Merge Labs, with Alex Blania at the helm.

The venture is aiming for a valuation of eight hundred and fifty million dollars and is seeking to raise two hundred and fifty million dollars in funding, predominantly from OpenAI’s ventures arm.

Altman himself will not hold a daily operational role.

Merge Labs intends to develop advanced brain-computer technologies to integrate human cognition with artificial intelligence.

The move positions the company as a direct competitor to Neuralink, the brain-machine interface firm founded by Elon Musk in two thousand sixteen, which was recently valued at nine billion dollars.

Altman previously invested in Neuralink but is now directing capital and support toward developing rival technologies.

Other start-ups such as Precision Neuroscience and Synchron are also active in the brain-computer interface sector, exploring paths to commercialise high-bandwidth neural interfaces.

Merge Labs reflects broader momentum in the brain-computer interface field, driven by recent progress in artificial intelligence and electronics.