Background

Sam Altman is chief executive of OpenAI. In a December 2017 blog post titled “The Merge”, he called a merge of humans and AI “probably our best-case scenario” and named electrodes in the brain as one form it could take.

Merge Labs

Altman is one of six named co-founders of Merge Labs, alongside Caltech bioengineer Mikhail Shapiro, Forest Neurotech co-founders Tyson Aflalo and Sumner Norman, World identity project co-founder Alex Blania, and Sandro Herbig. Merge came out of stealth on 15 January 2026 with a $252 million seed round at a reported $850 million valuation, backed by OpenAI, Bain Capital, Interface Fund, Fifty Years and Gabe Newell.

Merge is pursuing a non-invasive approach that pairs focused ultrasound with engineered molecules to read brain activity without surgery. It describes itself as a research lab working on a horizon of decades and says its initial products will serve patients with injury or disease. On 1 September 2026 it named Butterfly Network its exclusive partner for chip-based ultrasound under a multi-year licensing deal; Altman was not quoted in that announcement.

Why it matters

Altman’s role, with OpenAI as an investor, ties AI capital directly to neural interface research. The bet is long-dated. As of October 2026 Merge had not shipped a product, and a February 2026 Nature News analysis questioned whether ultrasound physics can deliver the resolution a practical interface needs. Butterfly, Merge’s chip supplier, has since signed a similar deal with Bridge Neurotech, founded by fellow Forest Neurotech co-founder Will Biederman.

Coverage on InsideBCI

• 28 March 2026: Merge Labs’ $252M Bet on Ultrasound BCI Faces Scientific Scrutiny
• 1 September 2026: Merge Labs picks Butterfly’s ultrasound-on-chip for its brain-computer interface build
• 8 October 2026: Bridge Neurotech raises $13.5 million to build a brain-computer interface without surgery
• 11 October 2026: Sabi raises $50 million for a brain-sensing baseball cap