A Neuralink co-founder delivered a keynote at a Shanghai BCI symposium on 14 September 2026, twelve days after a US National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology paper warned that the United States is at risk of losing its lead in brain-computer interfaces. Philip Sabes, now CEO of Arbor Neuroscience, spoke at the BCI Inno+ Salon International Symposium on Brain-Computer Interface, hosted by the BCI Innovation and Transformation Center at Brain Intelligence World in Shanghai’s Minhang District. His stated thesis was technical, not geopolitical: the real bottleneck in neuromodulation is prediction.
What Sabes said
Sabes framed the neuromodulation field’s current practice as “poke and hope”: stimulate a target brain circuit, then wait to see what happens to the patient. He argued that the deeper bottleneck is not stimulation hardware or electrode density but the inability to predict outcomes ahead of time. “The real bottleneck is prediction. Because we don’t know exactly what will happen after neuromodulation and stimulation, we can’t reliably predict treatment outcomes.”
His stated positioning for Arbor Neuroscience is “predict and treat” replacing “poke and hope”. The speech title on the symposium programme was “The Fastest Path to Reliable Neuromodulation: How Neurotechnology Accelerates Therapeutic and Scientific Discoveries.”
Sabes did not comment publicly on US and China BCI competition, export controls, or the 14 August 2026 BIS $1.7 million settlement with Plexon over neural recording equipment exports to China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences. He did not comment on the 2 September 2026 NSCEB policy paper warning of US BCI leadership erosion. The speech was technical throughout.
What Arbor Neuroscience is
Arbor Neuroscience is the September 2026 rebrand of Forest Neurotech, a functional-ultrasound-imaging Focused Research Organization inside Convergent Research. Forest was founded by Sumner Norman, Tyson Aflalo and Will Biederman, working on functional ultrasound imaging as a non-implanted, non-electrode alternative to reading and modulating brain activity. On the rebrand to Arbor Neuroscience, Sabes was appointed CEO and Whitney Griggs was appointed to leadership. The company’s core scientific premise is that functional ultrasound can build the kind of longitudinal predictive dataset the “predict and treat” thesis requires, at a spatial and temporal resolution that penetrating microelectrode arrays cannot easily match.
Sabes had earlier co-founded Integral Neurotechnologies, described in Chinese trade coverage as a company that “ultimately failed to obtain sufficient financing.” Arbor is his current operating vehicle.
Where the symposium sits
The BCI Innovation and Transformation Center at Brain Intelligence World is a Shanghai state-backed partnership: Minhang District, Lingang Group, Shanghai State Investment Corp, and Huashan Hospital (a Fudan University teaching hospital), announced under development from Shanghai municipal government in June 2025. It is positioned as China’s first BCI industry cluster.
The 14 September event was branded “BCI Inno+ Salon | International Symposium on Brain-Computer Interface” and drew coverage from Chinese trade press.
The governance angle Sabes did not editorialise
Sabes is a US-based Neuralink co-founder. The 2 September 2026 NSCEB policy paper on BCIs warned that American BCI companies risk losing ground to China, without naming operators. The Shanghai symposium was hosted by a Shanghai state-backed BCI industry cluster. The chronology stands on its own: 14 August 2026 BIS-Plexon settlement, 2 September NSCEB paper, 14 September Sabes keynote at the Shanghai cluster.
Sabes made no US-China statement, no export-control statement, and no policy statement of any kind during the symposium. The peg here is a chronological signal, not a statement of record.
Whether Sabes appeared physically in Shanghai or spoke remotely is not disclosed. Whether other Western BCI figures spoke at the symposium is not disclosed. Whether Arbor Neuroscience has any commercial or research collaboration with Chinese BCI operators is not stated.
Not to be confused with Max Hodak
Philip Sabes is distinct from Max Hodak, another Neuralink co-founder from the same 2016 founding group. Hodak is CEO of Science Corporation and delivers a “Beyond Screens” keynote at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 on 13 October 2026 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Sabes ran neuroscience research; Hodak ran the business. Both departed Neuralink between 2020 and 2021 and now run distinct BCI companies with distinct technical theses.
Sabes retired from UCSF in 2017 (Professor Emeritus) to join Neuralink full-time. He left Neuralink in 2020.
Not disclosed
The symposium is single-sourced to 36Kr’s English and Chinese republications of a WeChat report from “IPO Exclusive News” (account ID ipozaozhidao), authored under a pen name. Independent English-language confirmation of the event and Sabes’s speech content was not located at publication. Whether Sabes appeared physically or remotely, other named speakers, and any Chinese-operator commercial collaboration with Arbor are not confirmed. Arbor Neuroscience’s current funding, employee count, and product pipeline milestones beyond the September 2026 rebrand are not disclosed.
What to watch
Whether US-side commentary follows Sabes’s appearance. CSET, NSCEB, the Bureau of Industry and Security, or Senate Foreign Relations staff are the natural sources for any policy reaction. As of publication no US commentary has been located.
Whether other Western BCI operators, academics or founders appear at Fudan-backed or Minhang-backed BCI events in the coming quarters. The Brain Intelligence World cluster is positioning itself as an international convening venue.
Whether Arbor Neuroscience announces any research collaboration or commercial partnership with a Chinese BCI operator. Any collaboration would carry a heavier governance load than a keynote appearance.
Whether Arbor publishes its first functional-ultrasound clinical or preclinical result in the coming quarters, which is the natural test of the “predict and treat” thesis.
Whether the Brain Intelligence World cluster publishes its registered-company roster and headcount. Public visibility into the cluster’s operator concentration is currently limited.
Sources
Primary and near-primary coverage:
- 36Kr English, Top Brain-Computer Interface Expert Philip Sabes: The Real Neuromodulation Bottleneck Is…, 17 September 2026
- 36Kr Chinese original
- Arbor Neuroscience, Introducing Arbor announcement
- Neurotech Notables issue 62 by Naveen Rao, 16 September 2026
- Philip Sabes UCSF profile
- Brain Intelligence World cluster Shanghai municipal announcement
Cross-reference to prior InsideBCI coverage: