OpenAI leads $250m seed in Merge Labs BCI startup

This is a rare, explicit bet on brain–computer interfaces by a frontier AI lab, and it links the computational race to AGI with the race to plug those systems directly into humans. Merge is not a generic neurotech startup: its stated mission is to “bridge biological and artificial intelligence” using high‑bandwidth, minimally invasive interfaces that lean heavily on advanced AI models for signal decoding and control. Having OpenAI as the largest investor and technical collaborator effectively makes Merge the in‑house BCI R&D arm of one of the leading AGI contenders.

Strategically, this deepens OpenAI’s moat in two directions at once: frontier models and the human–machine interface layer those models will ultimately run through. If high‑bandwidth BCIs become viable, they change the limiting factor from what models can do to what brains can absorb and control. That’s a different kind of advantage than just more GPUs. It also intensifies conflicts‑of‑interest around Sam Altman’s overlapping roles across OpenAI, Merge and massive AI infra projects like Stargate, raising governance and concentration‑of‑power questions that regulators are only beginning to understand.

For the broader ecosystem, this is a signal that BCIs have graduated from speculative moonshot to near‑core strategic asset in the AGI race. Expect more labs and big tech players to either partner with Merge or fund rival neurotech efforts rather than ceding this layer entirely to OpenAI’s orbit.