For years, brain-computer interfaces have sat in that weird category of “fascinating future tech” that always feels a little too far away to matter right now. But OpenAI’s latest move makes it clear the company doesn’t see it that way.
This week, OpenAI invested in Merge Labs — a brain-computer interface startup tied to CEO Sam Altman — as part of a massive $250 million seed round that values the company at around $850 million. The funding was undisclosed publicly, but a source confirmed OpenAI wrote the biggest single check. And if you’re thinking, “Wait… OpenAI is investing in its own CEO’s startup?” — yeah, that’s the headline here, and it immediately raises eyebrows.
Merge Labs is positioning itself as a research-focused company trying to “bridge biological and artificial intelligence,” with the long-term goal of expanding what humans can do alongside advanced AI. The company says it wants to build a noninvasive interface — meaning no surgical implants — using “molecules instead of electrodes” and deep-reaching methods like ultrasound to send and receive information from neurons. That’s a very different path from Elon Musk’s Neuralink, which relies on invasive surgery and electrode threads inserted into the brain.
If this all sounds like sci-fi, it kind of is. But the way OpenAI is framing the investment is very practical: it calls BCIs “an important new frontier” and argues they could create a more natural way for people to communicate, learn, and interact with AI. In other words, if AI is going to become the most powerful tool humans use, OpenAI wants to help shape the interface people use to access it.
That’s also what makes the deal feel so… circular.
Merge Labs could eventually become a new way to control AI systems — basically a human-to-AI “remote control” layer — and OpenAI’s own blog post hints at that. It talks about how AI can help accelerate research in bioengineering, neuroscience, and device design, but also how AI systems could make BCIs work better by interpreting intent and handling messy, low-quality signals. If Merge Labs succeeds, it could push more users into OpenAI’s ecosystem, which then reinforces why OpenAI invested in it in the first place. At the same time, it increases the value of a startup Altman owns using resources from a company he runs.
That’s the part that’s hard to ignore. Even if the investment is defensible on the merits, it still puts OpenAI in the position of financially backing a venture directly tied to its CEO’s personal ambitions — and Altman has been talking about this “merge” idea for a long time. As far back as 2017, he wrote about humans and machines merging in some form between 2025 and 2075, ranging from literal brain connections to the softer version of becoming “really close friends with a chatbot.” He’s even described the merge as a best-case path for humans surviving in a world with superintelligent AI.
Merge Labs isn’t Altman’s only crossover deal, either. OpenAI has been building a broader hardware and investment footprint: it acquired Jony Ive’s startup io and is reportedly working on an AI device that doesn’t rely on screens — with rumors pointing to something like an earbud. OpenAI’s Startup Fund has also backed other companies connected to Altman, and OpenAI has signed commercial agreements with ventures he personally owns or chairs, including energy startups like Helion and Oklo. Taken together, it starts to look less like a one-off bet and more like a pattern.
The company’s founding team also shows how close this sits to Altman’s existing network. Merge Labs includes Tools for Humanity leaders Alex Blania and Sandro Herbig, alongside founders tied to neural tech company Forest Neurotech and researcher Mikhail Shapiro from Caltech. Some of them plan to keep working in their existing roles while being involved with Merge, and the company says the co-founders are also board members.
None of this automatically means something shady is happening. But it does underline a bigger question the AI industry keeps running into: as AI companies become more powerful, and more intertwined with the people running them, what does “good governance” actually look like? When the boundaries between CEO ambition, company strategy, and investment decisions blur, transparency matters — not just because it’s ethical, but because it becomes foundational to trust.
And beyond the corporate structure drama, there’s a real strategic logic underneath all of this. The AI race isn’t just about who has the best model anymore. It’s also about who controls the way people interact with that model — and brain-computer interfaces are the extreme version of that idea. If BCIs ever become viable at scale, the company that sits closest to the interface layer could end up with an advantage that’s much bigger than a benchmark score.
Whether Merge Labs can deliver on its noninvasive vision is still very much an open question. But OpenAI’s involvement makes one thing clear: in the future it’s planning for, AI won’t just live on screens. It’ll be something you talk to, wear, and maybe one day connect to in ways that make today’s chatbots look like the early prototype phase.
This analysis is based on reporting from TechCrunch.
Image courtesy of Unsplash.
This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.
