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Tag: Shanghai

6 articles

Policy & Regulation

Chinese Academy of Sciences names brain-computer interfaces a priority field in its 2026 to 2030 plan

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China's top state research body, announced on 28 September 2026 that it had released its 15th Five-Year development plan covering 2026 to 2030. The plan lists brain-computer interfaces among its 'important priority fields' (重要优先领域), alongside integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, quantum science and technology, life sciences and biotechnology, and controlled nuclear fusion. CAS will organise research around a '3+4+X' regional layout with Shanghai as one of three strategic highlands, and will explore forming field-based research consortia, mission-based task forces and platform-based facility clusters across its institutes. CAS already runs its own invasive BCI programme: a system developed at its Shanghai Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology (CEBSIT) was implanted in its first trial participant at Huashan Hospital in March 2025, and StairMed, founded by CEBSIT researcher Zhao Zhengtuo, entered the National Medical Products Administration's innovative device green channel in November 2025 with a market target of around 2028. CAS was one of the seven co-signatories of the 2025 BCI industry implementation opinions. The plan lands six days after Premier Li Qiang inspected BCI products in Shanghai and called future industries a blue ocean for advanced manufacturing. No BCI budget, programme names or milestones have been made public.

Sep 30

Market Moves

BCI-Sonics closes RMB 200 million Pre-A led by HongShan and Yunqi Partners

Shanghai-headquartered non-invasive brain-computer interface company BCI-Sonics closed a RMB 200 million (~USD 28 million) Pre-A financing round on Tuesday 22 September 2026, co-led by HongShan (the post-2023 rebrand of Sequoia China under Neil Shen) and Yunqi Partners. New participants included Proxima Capital, Oriza Holdings, Shanghai's Xuhui Sci-Tech Innovation Investment, and Moral Stone Investment. Existing investors Matrix Partners China (MPCi) and Delian Capital followed on. Xunguang Capital served as exclusive financial advisor. Total capital raised since 2025 founding is roughly RMB 300 million. The company was founded by Dr. Li Xin, formerly Head of GE Global Research Center China and a joint PhD graduate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Fraunhofer IGD in Germany. BCI-Sonics' modality is low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS/LIFU) for brain stimulation, paired with a multimodal reading system combining functional ultrasound (fUS), EEG, fMRI and PET, and passive cavitation detection for safety monitoring. Three product lines are in development: a Research toolchain for neuroscience labs (unveiled at CNS 2026 in September), a Clinical portfolio targeting pain, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, addiction, sleep, and ultrasound-mediated blood-brain-barrier opening for CNS drug delivery, and a Technology/Consumer wearable BCI terminal for sleep, focus and emotion. Closed-loop ultrasound BCI clinical trials are scheduled to enter Q1 2027. The Pre-A closed the same day Premier Li Qiang inspected BCI products in Shanghai and directed the establishment of future-industry investment-growth and risk-sharing mechanisms and 'patient capital' (耐心资本) expansion.

Sep 24

Policy & Regulation

Chinese Premier Li Qiang publicly names brain-computer interfaces a 'blue ocean' on a Shanghai inspection tour

China's Premier Li Qiang, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, spent Tuesday 22 September 2026 on a Shanghai inspection tour of two innovation venues. At the second, the Shanghai Future Kick-off Community (上海未来启点社区) sci-tech innovation and incubation platform for future industries, he inspected technology products in two named categories: brain-computer interfaces and quantum computing. He then framed future industries as 'a potential blue ocean for advanced manufacturing' (先进制造业发展的潜在蓝海). Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Jining and State Council Secretary-General Wu Zhenglong accompanied the tour. The remarks operationalise General Secretary Xi Jinping's prior directive on advanced manufacturing and the spirit of the National Conference on Advanced Manufacturing. The visit lands Li Qiang's on-record inspection of BCI products above the March 2026 Government Work Report first-mention, above the 15th Five-Year Plan naming of BCI as a future industry (CPC 4th Plenum, 20 to 23 October 2025), and above the seven-ministry BCI Implementation Opinions of July 2025. The venue itself is not disclosed to have featured named Chinese BCI operators. Shanghai's Minhang District already hosts the country's first BCI industry cluster at Brain Intelligence World, which by mid-2026 housed 61 BCI companies, roughly 30 percent of the national BCI operator field.

Sep 23

Industry News

Arbor Neuroscience CEO Philip Sabes tells Shanghai BCI symposium that prediction is the neuromodulation bottleneck

Philip Sabes, a Neuralink co-founder (full-time 2017 to 2020) and now CEO of Arbor Neuroscience, delivered a keynote at the BCI Inno+ Salon International Symposium on Brain-Computer Interface in Shanghai on 14 September 2026. His stated thesis was that the real bottleneck in neuromodulation is prediction: because clinicians cannot reliably predict what will happen after brain stimulation, treatment outcomes are inconsistent. Sabes summarised current practice as 'poke and hope' and positioned Arbor's approach as 'predict and treat'. Arbor Neuroscience is the September 2026 rebrand of Forest Neurotech, a functional-ultrasound-imaging Focused Research Organization founded by Sumner Norman, Tyson Aflalo and Will Biederman inside Convergent Research. The symposium was hosted by the BCI Innovation and Transformation Center at Brain Intelligence World in Shanghai's Minhang District, a Shanghai state-backed partnership between Minhang District, Lingang Group, Shanghai State Investment Corp and Huashan Hospital (a Fudan University teaching hospital), positioned as China's first BCI industry cluster. Sabes made no public statement on US and China BCI competition, export controls, or the recent NSCEB and BIS enforcement actions.

Sep 19

Market Moves

BrainCo unveils a brain-to-robot developer platform at WAIC 2026 in Shanghai

On Friday 17 July 2026, at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, BrainCo debuted its Brain-Controlled Robot AI Platform, a graphical developer toolkit that pairs its non-invasive EEG headset with third-party humanoid, robotic-arm, and quadruped robots from Unitree, Realman, and Deep Robotics. Nyx He, partner and senior vice president, framed the launch as the next chapter of human-machine collaboration. Live demonstrations at the booth showed a person in an EEG headband directing a robotic arm to pick up a cup and an apple without buttons, voice, or muscle movement.

Jul 18

Policy & Regulation

Beijing names Changfazhan its first BCI incubation platform under the Future Industry programme

Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology announced on 1 July 2026, with English release on 7 July, that the Changfazhan Brain Science and Brain-Computer Interface Incubation Platform in Changping district has been designated as one of seven newly recognised Future Industry Incubation Platforms, the first BCI-specific platform under that specific programme. Shanghai municipal science commission director Luo Dajin separately claimed on 6 July that Shanghai hosted nearly 60 per cent of China's BCI financing events, 40 per cent of the disclosed funding amount, and one-third of the country's BCI companies in the first half of 2026.

Jul 7