Elon Musk and Sam Altman, rivals even in neural implants

The rivalry between Sam Altman and Elon Musk is heating up. The two entrepreneurs publicly clashed online on Tuesday after Elon Musk accused Apple of favoring OpenAI and its ChatGPT AI on the App Store over the Grok chatbot. The feud could soon extend to the field of brain-computer interfaces. According to the Financial Times , OpenAI is reportedly considering investing in a new company called Merge Labs, a direct competitor to Neuralink , a company founded by the head of Tesla, SpaceX, X, and xAI.

Merge Labs is targeting a valuation of $850 million and is seeking to raise $250 million in a funding round, with the majority of funding coming from OpenAI's ventures team, three sources familiar with the matter said. Altman is said to have backed the project and will participate in the launch alongside Alex Blania, director of World, an iris-scanning biometric authentication platform also funded by the OpenAI boss.

This new company intends to take advantage of the latest advances in artificial intelligence, in the strategic sector of brain-computer interfaces to develop effective brain implants.