Elon Musk‘s startup Neuralink on Wednesday said part of its brain implant malfunctioned after it put the system in a human patient for the first time.
Neuralink has built a brain-computer interface, or a BCI, that could eventually help patients with paralysis control external technology using only their minds. The company’s system, called the Link, records neural signals using 1,024 electrodes across 64 “threads” that are thinner than a human hair, according to its website.
In January, Neuralink implanted the device in a 29-year-old patient named Noland Arbaugh as part of a study to test its safety. The company streamed a live video with Arbaugh as he used the BCI in March, and Neuralink said in an April blog post that the surgery went “extremely well.”
But in the weeks afterward, a number of threads have retracted from Arbaugh’s brain, Neuralink said in a blog post Wednesday. This meant there were fewer effective electrodes, which inhibited the company’s ability to measure the Link’s speed and accuracy.
Neuralink did not disclose how many threads retracted from the tissue. The company did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
As a workaround, Neuralink said it modified the recording algorithm, enhanced the user interface and worked to improve techniques for translating signals into cursor movements, the blog post said. Neuralink reportedly considered removing the implant, but the problem hasn’t posed a direct risk to Arbaugh’s safety, according to The Wall Street Journal, who earlier reported on the problem. Neuralink shared its blog post after the Journal asked the company about the issue, according to the report.
Though some threads retracted from Arbaugh’s brain tissue, Neuralink said he is using the company’s BCI system for around eight hours a day during the week, and often as many as 10 hours a day on the weekends.
Arbaugh said the Link is like a “luxury overload,” and it has helped him to “reconnect with the world,” according to the blog post.
Neuralink is not the only company that is building a BCI system, and the technology has been explored in academic settings for decades.
Neuralink has a long road of safety and efficacy testing ahead before it can be eligible for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to commercialize the technology.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators hold banners and signs as they protest outside the Microsoft Build conference at the Seattle Convention Center in Seattle, Washington on May 19, 2025.
Jason Redmond | Afp | Getty Images
Microsoft on Thursday said that it had terminated two employees who broke into President Brad Smith’s office earlier this week.
The news comes after seven current and former Microsoft employees on Tuesday held a protest in the company’s building in Redmond, Washington, in opposition to the Israeli military’s alleged use of the company’s software as part of its invasion of Gaza.
The protesters, affiliated with the group No Azure for Apartheid, gained entry into Smith’s office and had demanded that Microsoft end its direct and indirect support to Israel.
In a post on Instagram, No Azure for Apartheid said Riki Fameli and Anna Hattle had been fired by the company.
“Two employees were terminated today following serious breaches of company policies and our code of conduct,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement, noting unlawful break-ins at the executive offices.
“These incidents are inconsistent with the expectations we maintain for our employees. The company is continuing to investigate and is cooperating fully with law enforcement regarding these matters,” the statement added.
In the aftermath of the protests, Smith claimed that the protestors had blocked people out of the office, planted listening devices in the form of phones, and refused to leave until they were removed by police.
No Azure For Apartheid defines itself as “a movement of Microsoft workers demanding that Microsoft end its direct and indirect complicity in Israeli apartheid and genocide.”
The Guardian earlier this month reported that the Israeli military had used Microsoft’s Azure cloud infrastructure to store the phone calls of Palestinians, leading the company to authorize a third-party investigation into whether its technology has been used in surveillance.
Smith said on Tuesday that the company would “investigate and get to the truth” of how services are being used.
According to Smith, No Azure For Apartheid also mounted protests around the company’s campus last week, leading to 20 arrests in one day, with 16 having never worked at Microsoft.
No Azure for Apartheid has held a series of actions this year, including at Microsoft’s Build developer conference and at a celebration of the company’s 50th anniversary. Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that a Microsoft director had reached out to the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding the protests.
Microsoft’s actions come after tech giant Google fired 28 employees last year following a series of protests against labor conditions and the company’s contract with the Israeli government and military for cloud computing and artificial intelligence services. In that case, some employees had gained access to the office of Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google’s cloud unit.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang waves to a crowd as he leaves the China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) in Beijing on July 17, 2025.
Jade Gao | Afp | Getty Images
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said there’s a “real possibility” the company brings its advanced Blackwell processor to China as he urges the U.S. government to open up access for American chipmakers.
He also predicted the artificial intelligence market in the world’s second-biggest economy will grow 50% next year.
“The opportunity for us to bring Blackwell to the China market is a real possibility,” Huang said on Wednesday in a call for Nvidia’s latest quarterly results. “We just have to keep advocating the importance of American tech companies to be able to lead and win the AI race, and help make the American tech stack the global standard.”
Huang personally visited the White House in July and August to secure export licenses for Nvidia’s current-generation chip for Chinese AI, called the H20. In August, the White House announced that President Donald Trump and Huang had struck a deal in which Nvidia would receive export licenses in exchange for 15% of China sales of the H20 going to the U.S. government.
After the meeting, Trump said he was open to making a deal for Blackwell chips, which is Nvidia’s latest AI technology that currently comprises the majority of its data center revenue.
Huang has said that it is better for Chinese AI developers to use Nvidia’s chips rather than force them to use homegrown Chinese options by preventing exports, which could incentivize the Chinese tech industry to catch up.
If Nvidia were to release a Blackwell chip in China, it could spur a large amount of sales as Chinese AI developers opt for the most powerful chips available. Nvidia would have to modify its Blackwell chips for the U.S. market to make them slower in certain aspects in order to comply with U.S. export regulations.
“The Blackwell is super-duper advanced. I wouldn’t make a deal with that,” Trump said in August, before adding that it was possible to make a deal for a “somewhat enhanced in a negative way” version of Blackwell.
Huang’s bullish comments on Wednesday come after the company reported second-quarter year-over-year revenue growth of 56% to $54 billion, despite not selling a single H20 chip to China during the quarter. Nvidia said it released $180 million in H20 inventory to a customer outside of China, which accounted for $650 million in sales.
Nvidia said it is not counting on any H20 sales in the October quarter as part of its forecast for $54 billion in revenue, but that the company could sell between $2 billion and $5 billion in H20 chips, depending on the geopolitical environment.
“If we had more orders, we can build more,” Nvidia finance chief Colette Kress said on the call with analysts.
Nvidia said that while it had received some licenses after the meeting with Trump, the U.S. government has yet to publish official regulations outlining how its cut of sales will work.
“USG officials have expressed an expectation that the USG will receive 15% of the revenue generated from licensed H20 sales, but to date, the USG has not published a regulation codifying such requirement,” Kress said.
Huang told analysts that China is the second-largest AI market in the world.
“The China market I’ve estimated to be about $50 billion of opportunity for us this year, if we were able to address it with competitive products,” Huang said. “And if it’s $50 billion this year, you would expect it to grow, say, 50% per year.”
Recent reports have indicated that the Chinese government is encouraging AI developers to use homegrown chips over those from Nvidia.
“We’re still waiting on several of the geopolitical issues going back and forth between the governments and the companies trying to determine their purchases and what they want to do,” Kress said.
The founder of the company behind the IRL social media app was charged with defrauding investors of $170 million in the company’s 2021 funding round, the Department of Justice said Wednesday.
A federal grand jury in Oakland federal court indicted Abraham Shafi, 38 of Hawaii, with wire fraud, securities fraud and obstruction in connection with the scheme, the DOJ said.
Shafi was the CEO of Get Together, the parent company of IRL. The company was valued at $1 billion after its 2021 Series C funding round. IRL, which shuttered in June 2023, was a platform for users to organize events and offline activities. It found some traction in 2018, ranking among Apple’s top social apps.
Shafi allegedly spent millions on incentive advertising to boost installs of the app leading up to the Series C while maintaining to investors that the company spent “very little” on getting new users, the DOJ said.
He then concealed the expense by invoicing it to another firm, the DOJ said.
The indictment also alleges that the CEO and his fiancée used investor funds for “luxury hotel stays, luxury clothing, purchases from home furnishing retailers, thousands of dollars for art classes, and hundreds of thousands of dollars for SHAFI’s wedding, including payments for wedding guests’ airfare and luxury hotels.”
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Shafi told CNBC in February 2018 that investors backed the company on its potential to compete with Facebook and Snapchat. Investors in IRL included Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and the venture firm Floodgate.
Shafi’s co-founders at IRL included Scott Banister, the first board member of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook, among others.
Only Shafi was named in the DOJ indictment. He faces a max of 20 years in prison on each count, the DOJ said.
“Shafi took advantage of investors’ appetite for investments in the pre-IPO technology space and fraudulently raised approximately $170 million by lying about IRL’s business practices,” Monique Winkler, director of the SEC’s San Francisco Regional Office, said in a release at the time.