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Merge Labs picks Butterfly's ultrasound-on-chip for its brain-computer interface build

Merge Labs, the US$252 million OpenAI-backed neural interface startup, has selected Butterfly Network (NYSE:BFLY) as its exclusive ultrasound-on-chip supplier under a multi-year Butterfly Embedded licensing deal announced 1 September 2026. The agreement covers Butterfly's Poseidon Family of Ultrasound-on-Chip for Merge's neural interface development, with upfront payments, milestones, hardware purchase commitments, technology access fees, and future royalties. Financial figures were not disclosed. Butterfly retains the right to license the same technology to other companies in the field. Ultrasound BCI now has a US-listed industrial supply chain.

Sep 1, 2026 · 4 min read

Industry News

CorTec wins a second FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for its Brain Interchange implant, this one for communication

German BCI operator CorTec GmbH announced on 31 August 2026 that FDA has granted a second Breakthrough Device Designation for its Brain Interchange implant, covering computer cursor control for people with non-progressive quadriplegia. The company's first Breakthrough Designation, in April 2026, covered stroke motor rehabilitation. Both designations apply to the same fully implantable, wireless, battery-free, bidirectional closed-loop platform with non-penetrating cortical surface electrodes. CorTec is now running two parallel FDA regulatory processes on identical hardware. The European regulatory route (EMA, CE Mark) is absent from the announcement.

Sep 1 · 5 min read

Market Moves

Cortical Labs names co-founder Brett Kagan as CEO

Melbourne-based Cortical Labs, the synthetic biological intelligence company behind the CL1 biological computer and the 2022 DishBrain neuron-on-chip study, appointed co-founder Brett Kagan as Chief Executive Officer on 28 August 2026, effective immediately. Kagan was previously Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Co-founder Hon Weng Chong steps down as CEO after seven years. Long-time investor Radar Ventures spoke publicly for the investor base. Cortical Labs is not a brain-computer interface operator; the CL1 platform runs computation on lab-grown human neurons rather than reading signals from an implanted human brain. InsideBCI covers this as adjacent-category leadership news.

Sep 1 · 6 min read

Policy & Regulation

India's DPDPA treats brain signals like a shopping cart, a legal scholar argues

In a LiveLaw analysis published 30 August 2026, CHRIST University Assistant Professor Namit Srivastava argues that India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 applies the same consent framework to neural data as it applies to a shopping cart, and that MeitY should add neural data as a sensitive category via delegated rule-making under Section 40 without reopening the Act. The piece is legal-scholar analysis, not Indian government policy. It lands two days after the 28 August ADI Neuroscience US$1 billion India neurotech fund announcement.

Aug 30 · 5 min read

Market Moves

India just got its first billion-dollar neurotech fund, ADI Neuroscience

ADI Neuroscience, an India-based neurotechnology investment vehicle backed by SPEC Finance India and announced 28 August 2026, targets US$1 billion of investment into India's neurotechnology sector over five years. SPEC Finance Group CEO Karan Dinesh Singh Rawat runs the fund. Neiry founder Alexander Panov and Moscow State University professor Mikhail Lebedev sit on the scientific side. The scale is roughly two orders of magnitude above the entire prior decade of Indian BCI startup funding, and the fund moves India onto the same neurotech-capital map as the United States, China, and the alliance-adjacent European infrastructure.

Aug 28 · 4 min read

Policy & Regulation

China puts brain-computer interfaces on the 15th Five-Year Plan 'future industry' list

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology named brain-computer interfaces among six future industries in a State Council Information Office press conference on 26 August 2026, alongside quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear fusion energy, embodied intelligence, and 6G. Retail News Asia reports MIIT's draft standards roadmap targets more than 40 BCI national standards by 2028 and more than 80 brain-tech standards by 2030, though the specific count is single-sourced and should be attributed accordingly.

Aug 27 · 4 min read

Industry News

China unveils uMR Shenguan, an MRI-integrated closed-loop BCI platform

Tianjin University and Shanghai-listed United Imaging Healthcare (688271.SS) jointly unveiled uMR Shenguan on 23 August 2026 in Tianjin, described by the developer team as a full-stack MRI-integrated brain-computer interface framework. The system is designed to combine neural signal capture, decoding, modulation, and evaluation within a single MRI-based closed loop across 3T and 5T United Imaging systems. Named clinical verticals: motor rehabilitation, neuro-critical care, psychiatry, ophthalmology, and audiology.

Aug 27 · 4 min read

Industry News

Paradromics wins FDA approval to connect its Connexus BCI to personal laptops, tablets and phones inside Connect-One

Paradromics announced on 26 August 2026 that the US Food and Drug Administration has issued an approval letter expanding the types of computing devices that may be used with its Connexus brain-computer interface inside the Connect-One Early Feasibility Study. Compatible personal, internet-connected devices (laptops, tablets, phones) can now be added into the study without a per-device FDA approval. Paradromics also identified a second patient for the feasibility study, and its first patient has progressed to closed-loop stage.

Aug 26 · 4 min read

Policy & Regulation

Türkiye's NOROM joins NATO's DIANA test network as an alliance-tier neurotechnology centre

Türkiye's Council of Higher Education announced on 23 August 2026 that the Neuroscience and Neurotechnology Center of Excellence Joint Application and Research Center (NOROM) has been admitted to NATO's Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) test network. NOROM is a joint centre between Gazi University, Ankara University and Middle East Technical University (METU), founded in 2023. Scope covers brain-computer interfaces, cognitive performance assessment, brain imaging, neuromodulation, robotic systems, and AI-assisted signal analysis. It is Türkiye's first and only DIANA test centre in the fields of neuroscience and neurotechnology.

Aug 24 · 4 min read