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News

Neuralink cuts some implant users' calibration from 10 minutes a day to 10 minutes a week

Neuralink said on 1 October 2026 that participants in its clinical trial have streamed more than 50,000 hours of unlabelled brain recordings during everyday use of its implant, and that it has used participants' own recordings to pretrain participant-specific models that steady the software turning brain signals into cursor movement. Calibration had averaged 55 minutes a week across participants, typically 10 minutes at the start of each day; some participants now calibrate for 10 minutes a week. Six participants set personal bests on Neuralink's cursor test, and one reached 11.32 bits per second, which the company calls a record for a brain-computer interface. Every live result came from a model trained on a single participant's data, and models pooled across participants have not yet performed better. Neuralink's stated next goals are calibrating once, never calibrating, and a shared 'API for the motor cortex' for developers.

Oct 3, 2026 · 4 min read

Policy & Regulation

California bans employers from using AI tools to collect workers' neural data

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1883 on 30 September 2026, the last day he could act on bills this session. From 1 January 2027 the law, by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles), bars employers from using workplace surveillance tools that use artificial intelligence to collect employees' neural data or to recognise, infer or predict their emotional state. It defines neural data as information generated by measuring activity in an employee's central or peripheral nervous system, covers public as well as private employers, and allows penalties of up to $500 per violation, enforced by the Labor Commissioner and public prosecutors. Tools used to ensure safety, and some federally regulated aerospace and defence work, are exempt. In his signing message Newsom said the law lacks key definitions and asked the Legislature to refine it. Three days earlier he vetoed AB 1542, leaving consumers with an opt-out over the sale of the same category of data.

Oct 2 · 7 min read

Industry News

NeuroXess participant uses his brain implant to steer AI from sketch to 3D-printed figurine

NeuroXess (脑虎科技), the Shanghai brain-computer interface developer, disclosed on 30 September 2026 that a man with a C4 spinal cord injury, implanted in April 2026 with its fully implanted, fully wireless Triple-Full system, used it to draw a sketch and enter prompts, from which a large AI model generated design options and one was 3D-printed as a figurine. Using AI smart glasses and NeuroXess's XessOS software, he also adjusted his hospital bed and switched lights and household devices by confirming his intent. NeuroXess describes the work as clinical exploration and released no speed or accuracy figures. The Triple-Full system is in a registration trial led at Huashan Hospital that began on 7 July 2026, with an estimated 32 participants and primary completion estimated for 30 January 2027, and entered the National Medical Products Administration's innovative device review in July.

Oct 2 · 6 min read

Market Moves

Neuracle has sold 13 brain implants at a listed RMB 475,000 each since July

Neuracle Technology (Shanghai) (博睿康), maker of China's first approved invasive brain-computer interface, has sold 13 NEO-ONE SCI implant systems and implanted 8 since its first commercial sale in July 2026, with more than 70 more in firm and intended orders. The system is listed at RMB 475,000 per set on procurement platforms in 27 provinces and is not covered by any basic medical insurance catalogue. Neuracle made the figures public on 29 September 2026 in its answers to the Shanghai Stock Exchange's first round of questions on its STAR Market listing application, 110 days after the application was accepted. First-half 2026 revenue was RMB 46.3 million, almost all from its non-invasive business and none from the implant, with a net loss of RMB 65.5 million. No listing committee meeting has been scheduled. None of the best-known Western developers of implanted BCIs, Neuralink, Synchron, Precision Neuroscience, Paradromics and Blackrock Neurotech, is publicly listed.

Oct 1 · 6 min read

Policy & Regulation

Chinese Academy of Sciences names brain-computer interfaces a priority field in its 2026 to 2030 plan

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China's top state research body, announced on 28 September 2026 that it had released its 15th Five-Year development plan covering 2026 to 2030. The plan lists brain-computer interfaces among its 'important priority fields' (重要优先领域), alongside integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, quantum science and technology, life sciences and biotechnology, and controlled nuclear fusion. CAS will organise research around a '3+4+X' regional layout with Shanghai as one of three strategic highlands, and will explore forming field-based research consortia, mission-based task forces and platform-based facility clusters across its institutes. CAS already runs its own invasive BCI programme: a system developed at its Shanghai Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology (CEBSIT) was implanted in its first trial participant at Huashan Hospital in March 2025, and StairMed, founded by CEBSIT researcher Zhao Zhengtuo, entered the National Medical Products Administration's innovative device green channel in November 2025 with a market target of around 2028. CAS was one of the seven co-signatories of the 2025 BCI industry implementation opinions. The plan lands six days after Premier Li Qiang inspected BCI products in Shanghai and called future industries a blue ocean for advanced manufacturing. No BCI budget, programme names or milestones have been made public.

Sep 30 · 7 min read

Market Moves

Precision Neuroscience closes oversubscribed $250 million Series D co-led by Pershing Square and the Ackman Oxman Institute

New York-headquartered invasive brain-computer interface operator Precision Neuroscience closed a $250 million oversubscribed Series D on Thursday 24 September 2026. Three co-leads: Pershing Square (Bill Ackman's investment firm), the Ackman Oxman Institute (the philanthropic BCI-and-neurotechnology venture Bill Ackman and Neri Oxman announced in August 2026 after their daughter Lucy's brain hemorrhage), and an undisclosed leading life-sciences investment fund. Additional participation from Duquesne Family Office (Stanley Druckenmiller), B Capital, ARK Invest, Invus, Mubadala Capital, Mirae Asset Capital, Korea Investment Partners, Hitachi Ventures, JSL Health Capital, and others. Total capital raised since 2021 founding is now $430 million. Proceeds will expand the clinical programme, advance Layer 7 through the next stages of FDA review, and build the infrastructure required for commercialisation. Precision was founded in 2021 by Ben Rapoport (Neuralink founding-team scientist, left Neuralink in 2018, Mount Sinai neurosurgeon), Michael Mager (CEO), Demetrios Papageorgiou, and Mark Hettick. Layer 7 is a thin-film 4,096-electrode microelectrode array that conforms to the cortical surface, non-penetrating, safely removable. Layer 7 holds an FDA 510(k) clearance authorising commercial use for recording, monitoring, and stimulating on the cortical surface for implantation durations of up to thirty days (granted April 2025), and has been used across 100-plus patient procedures at 18 medical institutions including the University of Pennsylvania Perelman, University of Chicago Medicine, Mount Sinai, and WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute. Precision runs a wholly-owned MEMS manufacturing facility in Texas and holds a Medtronic commercial partnership. BrainGate founder and 2026 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering laureate John Donoghue joined as Scientific Advisor on 23 July 2026. The Series D closes two days after Chinese non-invasive BCI operator BCI-Sonics closed a HongShan and Yunqi Partners-led RMB 200 million Pre-A in Shanghai on 22 September, the same day Premier Li Qiang inspected brain-computer interface products in Shanghai. Two top-tier private-capital signals into invasive and non-invasive brain-computer interface operators, one on each side of the Pacific, inside a single week.

Sep 25 · 6 min read

Market Moves

BCI-Sonics closes RMB 200 million Pre-A led by HongShan and Yunqi Partners

Shanghai-headquartered non-invasive brain-computer interface company BCI-Sonics closed a RMB 200 million (~USD 28 million) Pre-A financing round on Tuesday 22 September 2026, co-led by HongShan (the post-2023 rebrand of Sequoia China under Neil Shen) and Yunqi Partners. New participants included Proxima Capital, Oriza Holdings, Shanghai's Xuhui Sci-Tech Innovation Investment, and Moral Stone Investment. Existing investors Matrix Partners China (MPCi) and Delian Capital followed on. Xunguang Capital served as exclusive financial advisor. Total capital raised since 2025 founding is roughly RMB 300 million. The company was founded by Dr. Li Xin, formerly Head of GE Global Research Center China and a joint PhD graduate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Fraunhofer IGD in Germany. BCI-Sonics' modality is low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS/LIFU) for brain stimulation, paired with a multimodal reading system combining functional ultrasound (fUS), EEG, fMRI and PET, and passive cavitation detection for safety monitoring. Three product lines are in development: a Research toolchain for neuroscience labs (unveiled at CNS 2026 in September), a Clinical portfolio targeting pain, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, addiction, sleep, and ultrasound-mediated blood-brain-barrier opening for CNS drug delivery, and a Technology/Consumer wearable BCI terminal for sleep, focus and emotion. Closed-loop ultrasound BCI clinical trials are scheduled to enter Q1 2027. The Pre-A closed the same day Premier Li Qiang inspected BCI products in Shanghai and directed the establishment of future-industry investment-growth and risk-sharing mechanisms and 'patient capital' (耐心资本) expansion.

Sep 24 · 7 min read

Policy & Regulation

Chinese Premier Li Qiang publicly names brain-computer interfaces a 'blue ocean' on a Shanghai inspection tour

China's Premier Li Qiang, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, spent Tuesday 22 September 2026 on a Shanghai inspection tour of two innovation venues. At the second, the Shanghai Future Kick-off Community (上海未来启点社区) sci-tech innovation and incubation platform for future industries, he inspected technology products in two named categories: brain-computer interfaces and quantum computing. He then framed future industries as 'a potential blue ocean for advanced manufacturing' (先进制造业发展的潜在蓝海). Shanghai Party Secretary Chen Jining and State Council Secretary-General Wu Zhenglong accompanied the tour. The remarks operationalise General Secretary Xi Jinping's prior directive on advanced manufacturing and the spirit of the National Conference on Advanced Manufacturing. The visit lands Li Qiang's on-record inspection of BCI products above the March 2026 Government Work Report first-mention, above the 15th Five-Year Plan naming of BCI as a future industry (CPC 4th Plenum, 20 to 23 October 2025), and above the seven-ministry BCI Implementation Opinions of July 2025. The venue itself is not disclosed to have featured named Chinese BCI operators. Shanghai's Minhang District already hosts the country's first BCI industry cluster at Brain Intelligence World, which by mid-2026 housed 61 BCI companies, roughly 30 percent of the national BCI operator field.

Sep 23 · 6 min read

Industry News

Neuralink discloses direct thought-to-audio speech decoding in ALS participant Terry, the VOICE trial's third implantee

Neuralink published a video this week showing Terry, a married man with bulbar-onset ALS, saying 'Hello, how are you doing today?' and 'I, I love you' to his wife through an implanted N1 brain-computer interface. The output routed through Grok Voice, xAI's speech engine, using a clone of Terry's own pre-ALS recordings. It is Neuralink's most detailed publicly disclosed thought-to-speech demonstration to date and the first to route through xAI's Grok Voice engine for personalised voice synthesis. Another VOICE participant, Kenneth Shock, appeared in a Neuralink clip on 16 September 2026, two days before Terry's disclosure, saying 'I love you' to his wife. Terry is the third participant in Neuralink's VOICE early-feasibility trial (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT07224256), formally titled 'VOICE: An Early Feasibility Study of a Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface for Communication Restoration.' VOICE is a separate protocol from Neuralink's PRIME motor-decoding trial and its CAN-PRIME and GB-PRIME international arms. The N1 implant holds an FDA Breakthrough Device Designation; it is not FDA-approved and not commercially available. Prior Neuralink participants Noland Arbaugh (PRIME P1), Alex (PRIME P2), and Brad Smith (PRIME first ALS participant) are on the motor decoding track. Brad Smith's earlier speech restoration used cursor-typed text through a cloned voice; Terry's demonstration is the first Neuralink disclosure of direct neural-to-audio decoding. Neuralink has not published words-per-minute, word-error-rate, latency, or vocabulary-size metrics. No peer-reviewed methods paper accompanies the demonstration.

Sep 23 · 5 min read