Neurotech startup Paradromics on Monday announced it has implanted its brain-computer interface in a human for the first time. 

The procedure took place May 14 at the University of Michigan with a patient who was already undergoing neurosurgery to treat epilepsy. The company’s technology was implanted and removed from the patient’s brain in about 20 minutes during that surgery.

Paradromics said the procedure demonstrated that its system can be safely implanted and record neural activity. It’s a major milestone for the nearly 10-year-old startup, as it marks the beginning of its next chapter as a clinical-stage company. 

Once regulators give it the green light, Paradromics plans to kick off a clinical trial later this year that will study the long-term safety and use of its technology in humans. 

“We’ve shown in sheep that our device is best in class from a data and longevity standpoint, and now we’ve also shown that it’s compatible with humans,” Paradromics founder and CEO Matt Angle told CNBC in an interview. “That’s really exciting and raises a lot of excitement for our upcoming clinical trial.”

A brain-computer interface, or BCI, is a system that deciphers brain signals and translates them into commands for external technologies. Paradromics’ system is called the Connexus Brain-Computer Interface, and the company says it will initially help patients with severe motor impairments such as paralysis speak through a computer. 

Paradromics’ BCI has not been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and it still has a long road ahead before it reaches commercialization. 

But for Angle, who founded the company in 2015, the procedure in May was a success, and one that was years in the making.

“You do all of these steps, you validate the hardware, you have this really high degree of rational certainty that things are going to work,” he said, “but still emotionally when it works and when it happens the way you expected it to, it’s still very, very gratifying.” 

Though Paradromics’ BCI has not been officially cleared for use by regulators, organizations like the University of Michigan can use new devices for research as long as they can demonstrate that there is not a significant risk to patients. 

Dr. Oren Sagher, professor of neurosurgery at the University of Michigan, oversaw the traditional clinical component of the procedure in May. Dr. Matthew Willsey, assistant professor of neurosurgery and biomedical engineering at the University of Michigan, led the research component, including the placement of Paradromics’ device.

BCIs have been studied in academia for decades, and several other startups, including Elon Musk‘s Neuralink, are developing their own systems.

“It’s absolutely thrilling,” Willsey said in an interview. “It’s motivating, and this is the kind of thing that helps me get up in the morning and go to work.”

Each company’s BCI is slightly different, but Paradromics is designing a BCI that can record brain activity at the level of individual neurons.

Angle compared this approach to placing microphones inside vs. outside a stadium. Inside a stadium, microphones would capture more detail, such as individual conversations. Outside a stadium, microphones would only capture the roar of the crowd, he said. 

Other prominent BCI companies include Synchron, which is backed by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, and Precision Neuroscience. Both have implanted their systems in humans.

Paradromics has raised nearly $100 million as of February, according to PitchBook. The company announced a strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Neom in February, but declined to disclose the investment amount. 

“The last demonstration stuff has been shown, and we’re really excited about the clinical trial that’s coming up,” Angle said.

WATCH: Inside Paradromics, the Neuralink competitor hoping to commercialize brain implants before the end of the decade

Chinese electric carmakers Leapmotor and Aito reported record high deliveries in May, while other startups struggle to catch up as the price war intensifies.

Stellantis-backed Leapmotor delivered a record 45,067 vehicles in May, reflecting year-on-year growth of 148%. On May 15, the automaker launched an updated version of its C10 model, a mid-sized SUV, that retailed from 122,800 yuan ($17,045). Leapmotor said over 13,000 units of the C10 were delivered in May.

And on Sunday, Seres-backed Aito announced on social media that it had delivered 44,454 vehicles, setting a new record. The automaker, which uses Huawei tech, on May 30 officially launched the Maextro S800, an ultra-luxury sedan, with a starting price of 708,000 yuan.

Industry giant BYD maintained its stronghold in the industry, with 376,930 cars sold in May. Total car sales in May rose by 14.1% increase year on year, based on CNBC’s calculations of publicly available figures.

The automaker on May 23 slashed prices on 22 models, bringing the price of its Seagull hatchback down 20% to 55,800 yuan, causing Chinese automakers’ shares to slide.

The EV juggernaut has recently been scrutinized over claims that it had pressured Jinan Qiansheng, one of BYD’s dealers in the eastern province of Shandong, over cash flow. BYD refuted claims in a statement to Chinese media.

The intensifying price war has also sparked fears of a next “Evergrande” — China’s former real estate giant, which defaulted on its debt in 2021.

Xpeng May deliveries dipped to 33,525 vehicles from 35,045 vehicles the previous month. But the company reported a year-on-year growth of 230% and maintained its streak of delivering over 30,000 vehicles for the seventh consecutive month.

The automaker on May 28 officially launched the Mona M03 Max and Plus models, retailing from 129,800 yuan and 119,800 yuan, respectively.

Xiaomi delivered more than 28,000 vehicles in May, mirroring its performance last month.

The smartphone company on May 22 teased a new model of YU7 luxury SUV, which is set to be officially launched in July.

Other startups, however, experienced modest growth in deliveries.

Li Auto delivered 40,856 vehicles in May, representing a year-over-year increase of 16.7%, while Geely-owned Zeekr delivered 18,908 vehicles, indicating a 1.6% year-on-year growth, based on CNBC calculations of publicly available data. That’s despite Zeekr’s attempts to differentiate itself from the competition with its announcement of free driver-assistance technology in March.

Nio‘s May deliveries fell from the previous month, with a total of 23,231 vehicles delivered, reflecting 13.1% year-on-year growth. Onvo, Nio’s family-oriented smart electric vehicle brand, made up 6,281 of total deliveries. That makes May Onvo’s best-performing month so far this year.

Instead, companies may be looking to emerging markets such as those in Africa, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported last week.

BYD on April 24 announced its official entry into Benin, in collaboration with CFAO Mobility.

During the depths of the Covid pandemic, with restaurants around the country facing an existential crisis, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu had an unconventional proposal. He wanted to cut commissions.

Chief Business Officer Keith Yandell worried that such a move would result in a massive hit to profits ahead of the company’s planned IPO. But Xu made a persuasive case.

“If restaurants don’t thrive, we cannot,” Yandell told CNBC in a recent interview, recalling Xu’s perspective at the time. “We need to take a leadership position.”

The company ended up sacrificing over $100 million in fees, Xu later said.

Since starting DoorDash on the campus of Stanford University in 2013, the now 40-year-old CEO has navigated the notoriously cutthroat and low-margin business of food delivery, building a company that Wall Street today values at close to $90 billion. The stock has emerged as a tech darling this year, jumping 23%, while the Nasdaq is still down for the year largely on tariff concerns.

More than four years after its IPO, net profits remain slim. But that’s not getting in the way of Xu’s mission to become an industry consolidator, using a combination of cash and new debt to fuel an acquisition spree at a time when big tech deals remain scarce. Earlier this month, DoorDash scooped up British food delivery startup Deliveroo for about $3.9 billion and restaurant technology company SevenRooms for $1.2 billion.

“What we’ve delivered for a customer yesterday probably isn’t good enough for what we will deliver for them today,” Xu told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” after the deals were announced.

This week DoorDash announced the pricing of $2.5 billion in convertible debt, and said the proceeds could be used in part for acquisitions.

The San Francisco-based company has a history with scooping up competitors to grow market share. In 2019, it bought food delivery competitor Caviar for $410 million from Square, now known as Block. About two years later, DoorDash said it was paying $8.1 billion for international delivery platform Wolt. The deal was its last big transaction until this month.

When DoorDash entered the food delivery market, it had to face off against the likes of GrubHub and Seamless, which later joined forces. That combined entity was bought late last year by restaurant owner Wonder Group. In 2014, Uber launched Uber Eats, which is now DoorDash’s biggest competitor in the U.S.

“It’s a very competitive market, and I think merchants do have choice,” Xu said in the CNBC interview. “What we’re focused on is always trying to innovate and bring new products to match increasing standards and expectations from customers.”

DoorDash didn’t make Xu available for an interview for this story, but provided a statement about the company’s acquisition strategy.

“We’re very picky, very patient, and conscious that, for most companies, deals don’t work out in hindsight,” the company said. “When we see an opportunity that brings value to customers, expands our potential to empower local economies around the world, and has a path to strong long-term returns on capital, we tend to push our chips in.”

Colleagues and early investors credit a customer-first focus for much of Xu’s success. Gokul Rajaram, who joined DoorDash through its Caviar acquisition, described Xu as “the best operational leader in the U.S.” after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Restaurants haven’t universally viewed DoorDash as an ally. Commissions can reach as high as 30%, which is a hefty cut to fork over. Many restaurants have reluctantly paid the high fees because of DoorDash’s dominant market share, which reached an estimated 67%. In 2021, the company introduced three tiers of pricing, with a basic option at 15% for more price-sensitive businesses.

DoorDash needs the high fees in order to stay in the black. The company’s contribution profit as a percentage of total marketplace volume hovers below 5%.

Colleagues who have known Xu for decades say the food delivery entrepreneur hasn’t changed much since the early days of the company.

Yandell said Xu once took advice from his young daughter, who complained about a routing issue while accompanying him on food delivery orders. All employees, including Xu, are required to complete orders and handle support calls every year as part of the company’s WeDash program.

In a part of the country known for the pomp of its wealthy founders, Xu has a very different reputation.

Early workers recall memories of Xu pulling up in a dilapidated green 2001 Honda Accord to team events, or participating in company knockout basketball games referred to as “knockys,” next to the animal hospital in Palo Alto, which DoorDash briefly called its headquarters. Xu also personally approved every offer for the company’s first 4,000 employees.

Xu spends many mornings answering customer service complaints. He often drops his kids off at school and, after tucking them in at night, hops on calls with international regions, colleagues say. Xu is an avid Gold State Warriors basketball fan but has a soft spot for the Chicago Bulls, having spent many years in Illinois. Once or twice a week, Xu squeezes in a morning run, and will often do so while traveling to explore different neighborhoods and stores.

Xu was born in China and moved with his family to Champaign, Illinois, in 1989. Growing up, he played basketball and mowed lawns to save up for a Nintendo. He told Stanford’s View From the Top podcast in 2021 that the experience, and watching his parents hustle, taught him how to “earn your way into better things.”

His “characteristics became the company’s values,” said Alfred Lin, an early DoorDash investor and partner at venture firm Sequoia.

Xu often attributes his entrepreneurial spirit to his parents. His mother worked as a doctor in China, and juggled three jobs in the U.S. for over a decade, saving up enough to eventually open a medical clinic. His father worked as a waiter while pursuing a Ph.D. Xu said on the podcast that watching his mom gave him a deep understanding of what it takes to run a small business, which came in handy in DoorDash’s early years as he was trying to convert restaurants into customers.

Xu and his team entered Y Combinator in the summer of 2013. The three-month startup accelerator program is known for spawning companies like Airbnb, Stripe and Reddit. Every session culminates with a demo day in front of some of Silicon Valley’s biggest investors.

The DoorDash idea excited Paul Buchheit, creator of Gmail and a partner at Y Combinator. But like many other potential investors, Buchheit was skeptical about the economic model.

“You had a talented team of founders working on what I thought was an idea that had potential,” he said. “That’s basically the formula for a good startup.”

On pitch day, the company failed to lure any venture firms, but Buchheit later participated as a seed investor.

Shortly after demo day, DoorDash encountered Saar Gur of Charles River Ventures. Gur had been looking for a food delivery platform to back and was conducting due diligence on another company when a friend led him to DoorDash.

By the end of their first meeting, they were “finishing each other’s sentences,” Gur said.

Sequoia’s Lin initially passed on DoorDash after the Y Combinator pitch, but kept in touch with the team. Lin said he wanted to see data that showed the platform could penetrate beyond Stanford and Palo Alto, and retain customers. He ended up leading two institutional rounds, attaining a 20% stake for Sequoia at the time of the IPO.

“Tony always believed that his company would succeed, or they’ll find a way to succeed,” Lin said.

Shortly after its Y Combinator stint, DoorDash hit an early roadblock. Following a Stanford football game, a rush of orders bombarded its delivery system causing massive delays, Xu told Y Combinator’s CEO Garry Tan in an interview this year.

The founders refunded the orders and spent the night baking cookies, then driving them to customers early the next morning.

Oren’s Hummus co-owner Mistie Boulton said DoorDash still takes that approach. The team comes to meet with her every quarter and she serves as a beta tester for new products.

The restaurant, which started in Palo Alto and has since expanded to a half-dozen locations across the Bay Area, was one of DoorDash’s first clients, latching onto the opportunity to reach more customers beyond its small establishment that frequently had lines snaking out the door. 

“We just fell in love with the idea,” Boulton said. “The number one thing that encouraged and enticed me to want to work with them was Xu’s passion. He really is one of those people that you can count on.”

Wall Street is now counting on Xu’s ability to execute big deals, even with the company having this month surpassed $10 billion in delivery orders worldwide.

The acquisition of Deliveroo, based in London, marks a renewed effort by DoorDash to expand its presence overseas, following the purchase of Finland’s Wolt three years ago.

The cash deal for SevenRooms, a New York City-based data platform for restaurants and hotels to manage booking information, takes DoorDash into an entirely new category. Xu told CNBC that DoorDash is a “multi-product company now that’s operating on a global scale.”

Following the acquisition announcements, which coincided with a disappointing earnings report in March, analysts at Piper Sandler reiterated their hold recommendation on the stock.

One reason for concern, they said, was that “integrating multiple acquisitions at once may create some noise near-term.”

 WATCH: DoorDash CEO Tony Xu: Deliveroo & SevenRooms deals make us a multi-product company on a global scale