OpenAI Backs Sam Altman’s New Brain-Computer Interface Startup Merge Labs in $250M Seed Deal

New updates have been reported about OpenAI.

OpenAI has made a major strategic bet on brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), leading the $250 million seed round for Merge Labs, a new startup co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and valued at about $850 million. While financial terms of OpenAI’s individual check were not disclosed, a source confirmed it was the largest single investment in the round, positioning OpenAI at the center of an emerging effort to tightly integrate human cognition with advanced AI systems. OpenAI described BCIs as a “new frontier” for how people will communicate and interact with AI, framing the deal as both a research accelerator and a channel to create more natural, high-intent interfaces for its models. Strategically, this move deepens OpenAI’s hardware and human-interface ambitions beyond software and chatbots, complementing its separate work with Jony Ive’s hardware startup on AI-first devices that minimize reliance on screens.

Merge Labs aims to build noninvasive BCIs using molecules and deep-reaching modalities such as ultrasound instead of implanted electrodes, with the goal of reading and writing neural signals at scale to restore abilities, improve mental states, and augment human capabilities alongside AI. As part of the investment, OpenAI will collaborate with Merge on scientific foundation models and other frontier tools, expecting its AI to accelerate R&D in bioengineering, neuroscience, and device engineering, while Merge’s interfaces in turn provide OpenAI with a high-value input layer that can interpret user intent from noisy brain signals. The relationship is structurally circular: if Merge succeeds, it could drive more usage and dependence on OpenAI’s platforms, increasing the value of a company Altman co-owns while leveraging OpenAI’s capital and technology. The deal also extends a pattern in which OpenAI, largely via its Startup Fund, backs or enters commercial arrangements with Altman-linked ventures across frontier domains such as energy (Helion, Oklo), bio, and hardware, signaling an integrated ecosystem strategy around AI infrastructure, interfaces, and complementary deep-tech assets. For executives and investors, this underscores OpenAI’s intent to anchor the future human-AI “merge” in its own stack—software, models, and now the potential neural interface layer.