Brain implant startup backed by Bezos and Gates is testing mind-controlled computing on humans
Philip O’Keefe, one of Synchron’s patients in the SWITCH clinical trial, using his BCI.
Source: Synchron
In a Brooklyn lab stuffed with 3D printers and a makeshift pickleball court, employees at a brain interface startup called Synchron are working on technology designed to transform daily life for people with paralysis.
The Synchron Switch is implanted through the blood vessels to allow people with no or very limited physical mobility to operate technology such as cursors and smart home devices using their mind. So far, the nascent technology has been used on three patients in the U.S. and four in Australia.
“I’ve seen moments between patient and partner, or patient and spouse, where it’s incredibly joyful and empowering to have regained an ability to be a little bit more independent than before,” Synchron CEO Tom Oxley told CNBC in an interview. “It helps them engage in ways that we take for granted.”
Founded in 2012, Synchron is part of the burgeoning brain-computer interface, or BCI, industry. A BCI is a system that deciphers brain signals and translates them into commands for external technologies. Perhaps the best-known name in the space is Neuralink, thanks to the high profile of founder Elon Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter.
But Musk isn’t the only tech billionaire wagering on the eventual transition of BCI from radical science experiment to flourishing medical business. In December, Synchron announced a $75 million financing round that included funding from the investment firms of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
‘More scalable’
In August 2020, the Food and Drug Administration granted Synchron the Breakthrough Device designation, which is for medical devices that have the potential to provide improved treatment for debilitating or life-threatening conditions. The following year, Synchron became the first company to receive an Investigational Device Exemption from the FDA to conduct trials of a permanently implantable BCI in human patients.
Synchron is enrolling patients in an early feasibility trial, which aims to show that the technology is safe to put in humans. Six patients will be implanted with Synchron’s BCI during the study, and Chief Commercial Officer Kurt Haggstrom said the company is currently about halfway through.
The company has no revenue yet, and a spokesperson said Synchron isn’t commenting on how much the procedure will eventually cost.
While many competitors have to implant their BCIs through open-brain surgery, Synchron relies on a less invasive approach that builds on decades of existing endovascular techniques, the company said.
The Stentrode™ Endovascular Electrode Array.
Source: Synchron
Synchron’s BCI is inserted through the blood vessels, which Oxley calls the “natural highways” into the brain. Synchron’s stent, called the Stentrode, is fitted with tiny sensors and is delivered to the large vein that sits next to the motor cortex. The Stentrode is connected to an antenna that sits under the skin in the chest and collects raw brain data that it sends out of the body to external devices.
Peter Yoo, senior director of neuroscience at Synchron, said since the device is not inserted directly into the brain tissue, the quality of the brain signal isn’t perfect. But the brain doesn’t like being touched by foreign objects, Yoo said, and the less invasive nature of the procedure makes it more accessible.
“There’s roughly about 2,000 interventionalists who can perform these procedures,” Yoo told CNBC. “It’s a little bit more scalable, compared to, say, open-brain surgery or burr holes, which only neurosurgeons can perform.”
Philip O’Keefe, one of Synchron’s patients in the SWITCH clinical trial, was the first person in the world to tweet using a BCI device.
Source: Synchron
For patients with severe paralysis or degenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, Synchron’s technology can help them regain their ability to communicate with friends, family and the outside world, whether through typing, texting or even accessing social media.
Patients can use Synchron’s BCI to shop online and manage their health and finances, but Oxley said what often excites them the most is text messaging.
“Losing the ability to text message is incredibly isolating,” Oxley said. “Restoring the ability to text message loved ones is a very emotional restoration of power.”
In December 2021, Oxley handed over his Twitter account to a patient named Philip O’Keefe, who has ALS and struggles to move his hands. About 20 months earlier, O’Keefe was implanted with Synchron’s BCI.
“hello, world! Short tweet. Monumental progress,” O’Keefe tweeted on Oxley’s page, using the BCI.
Synchron’s technology has caught the attention of its competitors. Musk approached the company to discuss a potential investment last year, according to a Reuters report. Synchron declined to comment about the report. Neuralink didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Neuralink is developing a BCI that’s designed to be inserted directly into the brain tissue, and while the company is not testing its device in humans yet, Musk has said he hopes it will do so this year.
Haggstrom said his company’s funding will help accelerate Synchron’s product development and push it toward a pivotal clinical trial that would bring the company closer to commercialization.
Khosla Ventures partner Alex Morgan, who led an earlier financing round, said that while Synchron’s device may seem like something out of science fiction, it’s grounded in “real science” and is already making a significant difference in patients’ lives.
“Synchron is actually helping people as of right now, today,” he said in an interview. “That, to me, is really exceptional.”
Synchron’s brain-computer interface, The Stentrode™ Endovascular Electrode Array and Implantable Receiver Transmitter Unit.
Source: Synchron
In January, the medical journal JAMA Neurology published the peer-reviewed, long-term safety results from a trial of Synchron’s BCI system in Australia. The study found that the technology remained safe and didn’t deteriorate in signal quality or performance over a 12-month period.
“That was a huge publication for us,” Haggstrom said.
Haggstrom said commercialization is key for all the players in the industry.
“I always like to be competitive, and so for me, being first to market is critical,” Haggstrom said. “We meet future patients to talk to about their needs and stuff, and so when you see that, and you talk to these families and the caregivers, you want to race as fast as you can to provide them assistance in their daily life.”
WATCH: Mind-reading technology will allow us to control devices with our thoughts
Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, arrives to pay his last respect to Indian industrialist Ratan Tata at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) ahead of its cremation in Mumbai on October 10, 2024.
Punit Paranjpepunit Paranjpe | AFP | Getty Images
Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries on Friday announced new partnerships with Google and Meta to accelerate the company’s push into artificial intelligence.
Speaking at an annual shareholders’ meeting on Friday, Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani also disclosed ambitions to list Reliance Jio, India’s largest mobile network, in the first half of 2026.
“A decade ago, digital services became a new growth engine for Reliance — the opportunity before us with AI is just as large, if not larger,” Ambani said, as he revealed a new fully owned subsidiary called Reliance Intelligence.
In a pre-recorded video played during the AGM, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that Reliance would leverage the internet giant’s AI and cloud computing capabilities to boost innovation across sectors like energy, retail, telecommunications and financial services.
The pair will establish a dedicated cloud region in India, powered by clean energy provided by Reliance Industries and connected through Jio’s network.
Separately, Ambani also announced a new joint venture with Meta to make use of the tech group’s open-source AI models and deliver “sovereign, enterprise-ready AI for India.”
Under the new venture, Reliance Industries and Meta have committed an initial investment of $100 million to capitalize the unit in a ratio of 70% and 30% respectively, the two companies said in a joint statement Friday.
Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg hailed the partnership as “a key step forward towards ensuring that everyone has access to AI and eventually super intelligence.”
The partnerships signal a deeper push from U.S. tech names into India at a time when the country is seeing significant economic growth. It is not the first time that either Google and Meta has shown an interest in Reliance.
In 2020, Meta invested $5.7 billion into Jio Platforms, which is the parent company of Reliance Jio. Google separately announced a $4.5 billion investment in Jio Platforms that same year.
Jio Platforms owns a number of brands, including its telecommunications business Reliance Jio, which has grown rapidly over the past decade thanks to competitive pricing.
Reliance’s deeper pacts with Google and Meta come at a precarious time for U.S.-India relations. U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed hefty tariffs on India over its purchases of Russian oil.
Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr during the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Wednesday, May 28, 2025.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Eric Trump said Friday he is certain bitcoin will eventually hit a $1 million valuation as he spoke at a Hong Kong conference, marking the first of a series of Asian crypto events that will feature U.S. President Donald Trump’s sons.
Speaking at Hong Kong’s Bitcoin Asia 2025 conference, Eric Trump discussed his strong involvement in the crypto space.
“I really believe in the next several years, Bitcoin hits a million dollars. There’s no question,” he said, adding that 90% of his time is now spent with the crypto community.
During his panel, the American businessman and former reality TV presenter also showered praise on Simon Gerovich, president and CEO of Japanese Bitcoin treasury company Metaplanet. Eric joined the Tokyo-listed company’s board of advisors earlier this year.
Bitcoin’s price has risen about 86% in the last 12 months amid buoyant investor sentiment surrounding President’s Trump’s election victory and a more positive U.S. regulatory environment on crypto. However, it’s worth noting that cryptocurrencies generally can be highly volatile and the space has been shrouded in the past by illicit activity and corporate scandals. In 2022, bitcoin and other digital currencies slumped sharply after a slew of major crypto companies went bankrupt.
Asia push
Eric Trump, along with his brother Donald Trump Jr, have become major players in the Trump family’s growing crypto empire. The two are co-founders of the bitcoin-mining venture American Bitcoin and also help manage the Trump family-backed project World Liberty Financial.
Now the brothers are broadening their push into digital assets to Asia. Soon after his Hong Kong visit, Eric Trump is reportedly headed to Japan to attend a shareholder meeting of Metaplanet, according to a recent report from Bloomberg News.
Later in September, both Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are expected to speak at a South Korean crypto conference, and the pair is slated to appear as key speakers at Singapore’s Token 2049, one of the world’s largest crypto events.
Once a skeptic of cryptocurrencies, President Trump has also embraced the crypto industry, branding himself as the first “crypto president.”
“The Bitcoin community embraced my father unlike anything I had ever seen before,” Eric Trump said Friday adding: “And I hope that’s paid off in spades.”
The Trump administration has launched a number of executive orders and backed policies welcomed by the digital asset industry and has filled his cabinet with crypto advocates like David Sacks, the White House’s AI and crypto czar.
Trump has also been involved in crypto business ventures, including World Liberty Financial and his $TRUMP meme coin, leading to accusations of corruption and self-dealing from opposition lawmakers, as well as calls for ethics investigations.
Given the shared interests between the American president and his son’s crypto activities, market watchers will be monitoring how the two brothers are received by government officials during their Asia tour.
The visits come against the backdrop of President Trump’s ongoing global trade war, which has made Asia a major target.
A Hong Kong official and a lawmaker withdrew from a Bitcoin Asia conference in the city following advice not to engage with Eric Trump, the South China Morning Post reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
An archived version of the event webpage confirmed that Eric Yip, executive director at the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), and lawmaker Johnny Ng had previously been on the list of speakers for the event, before being removed.
The SFC told CNBC that Yip was unable to attend the event because of a business trip, while the South China Morning Post reported that Ng said he withdrew for family reasons.
The Hong Kong legislative council did not respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
– CNBC’s Ryan Browne contributed to this report.
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment11 months agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024