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
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) passengers walk off a train at the Richmond station on March 15, 2023 in Richmond, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Commuters in and around San Francisco rode into work for free on Tuesday morning due to an outage in the Clipper card system, which is used to handle payments for train, bus and ferry rides.
“ATTENTION: The Clipper system is experiencing an outage on all operators this morning,” the Bay Area Clipper account wrote in a post on X. “Please be prepared to pay your fare with another form of payment if required by your transit agency.”
Many buses were waving commuters on without asking for payment, and at Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train stations, the faregates were open, allowing travelers to walk through for free.
Clipper is owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which manages transportation for the nine-county Bay Area. The service is used by hundreds of thousands of tech workers in San Francisco and Silicon Valley.
The MTC website said there were 1.35 million unique Clipper cards — physical and digital — used in May, the highest monthly toll for the year and the most since December 2019, before the pandemic. A fact sheet from the MTC says Clipper is used by 800,000 transit riders a day across the region.
BART fare gates open on July 1, 2025, due to Clipper outage
Kif Leswing
BART, in particular, has undergone dramatic changes in recent years, most notably installing fare gates starting in late 2023, with full deployment expected to be completed by the end of this year.
In the first five months of the year, average BART station exits totaled between 170,000 and 182,000 a month, according to its website. Those numbers are way down from the pre-pandemic days of 2019, when averages were generally above 400,000 a month.
The MTC has plans to roll out an updated system called Clipper 2.0, which it says will be a “customer-focused, cost-effective fare collection system” with a “flexible platform for future fare structures.” Features include use across the various mobile operating systems, updated communication and “expanded retail, online and mobile sales.”
The update, however, has been routinely delayed, leading to tense confrontations at recent Clipper executive board meetings.
An image of a Quantix drone made by AeroVironment.
David Mcnew | Getty Images News | Getty Images
AeroVironment shares fell 7% Tuesday after the defense contractor said it plans to offer $750 million in common stock and $600 million in convertible senior notes due in 2030 to repay debt.
The drone maker said it would use leftover funding for general purposes such as boosting manufacturing capacity.
AeroVironment shares have soared 85% this year, ballooning its market value to about $13 billion.
Last week, shares of the Arlington, Virginia-based company rallied on strong fourth-quarter results, lifting higher as CNBC’s Jim Cramer called it the “next Palantir of hardware.”
Last month, the company also closed its $4.1 billion acquisition of space-related defense tech company Blue Halo.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order intended to boost drone production in the U.S. and crack down on unauthorized uses.
The company also has a high short interest level, which may have contributed to some of the recent gains, creating a short squeeze. This phenomenon occurs when a stock price surges, forcing those shorting the stock to purchase shares to cover their positions and prevent losses.
Aerovironment 1 month stock chart
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