Musk’s Neuralink could fetch $8.5 billion valuation, Bloomberg News reports

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(Reuters) -Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink is planning to raise about $500 million at a pre-money valuation of $8.5 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The company has started preliminary discussions with potential investors, but terms of the funding round are not yet finalized, according to the report.

Neuralink did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The startup was estimated to be valued at $5 billion in 2023, based on privately executed stock trades described to Reuters. The company had previously raised $280 million in a funding round led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.

Neuralink is in the process of testing its implant, which is intended to help people with spinal cord injuries. The device has 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.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had initially rejected Neuralink’s request to start clinical trials, citing safety risks, Reuters reported in 2023. The agency has since given it the approval to do clinical trials, which are ongoing.

Musk has expressed grand ambitions for the company, saying its chip would allow healthy and disabled people alike to pop into neighborhood facilities for speedy surgical insertions of devices to treat obesity, autism, depression and schizophrenia. He even sees them being used for web-surfing and telepathy.

In February, Reuters reported that the FDA was asking some of its recently fired scientists — which included some employees reviewing Neuralink’s device — if they would come back to their jobs.

Synchron Inc, a rival to Neuralink, is also testing an implant that can help people with motor impairment type on a computer.

(Reporting by Christy Santhosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)