OpenAI Backs Merge Labs' Seed Round to Build Brain-Computer Interfaces

OpenAI has invested in Merge Labs' seed round, betting that brain-computer interfaces will become the natural way for people to interact with AI systems.

The thesis behind the deal is simple, and OpenAI stated it plainly: "Each time people gain a more direct way to express intent, technology becomes more powerful and more useful." Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) sit at what OpenAI calls "an important new frontier" — a way to communicate, learn, and interact with technology that could remove the friction of keyboards, touchscreens, and voice entirely.

Merge Labs describes itself as a research lab with a long-term mission of "bridging biological and artificial intelligence to maximize human ability, agency, and experience." The company is developing what it calls fundamentally new approaches to BCIs — ones that are safe and that interface with the brain at much higher bandwidth than existing technology, by combining biology, devices, and AI.

That last element is where OpenAI comes in. AI will play a central role in Merge's approach on two fronts. First, it will accelerate the research and development pipeline itself, spanning bioengineering, neuroscience, and device engineering. Second, high-bandwidth interfaces will need AI operating systems capable of interpreting intent, adapting to individual users, and operating reliably despite limited and noisy neural signals.

To that end, OpenAI says it will collaborate with Merge Labs on scientific foundation models and other frontier tools to accelerate progress. OpenAI framed its position as both investor and research partner: "We are excited to support and collaborate with Merge Labs as they turn an ambitious idea into reality and ultimately products that are useful for people."

The founding team gives the bet scientific weight. Merge Labs' co-founders include researchers Mikhail Shapiro, Tyson Aflalo, and Sumner Norman, who OpenAI says have "pioneered entirely new approaches to BCI." They are joined by technology entrepreneurs Alex Blania, Sandro Herbig, and Sam Altman — the OpenAI CEO participating in a personal capacity, not through the company.

Altman's personal involvement echoes a pattern seen across the BCI field. Neuralink, backed by Elon Musk, has implanted its devices in human patients; Synchron has run its own human trials. The difference here is positioning: Merge Labs is not framing BCIs primarily as medical devices for patients with paralysis, but as the input layer for AI itself — the interface through which anyone might eventually communicate with machine intelligence directly.

The stakes are considerable. As AI models grow more capable, the bottleneck shifts from computation to interaction — how quickly and precisely a human can convey intent to a system. A high-bandwidth neural interface, paired with AI that can decode intent from imperfect signals, would compress that gap. OpenAI's investment signals that the company sees interface progress as a precondition for computing progress, not a side concern.

No funding amount, valuation, or product timeline was disclosed. Merge Labs is hiring, and the company says those excited by its mission can reach out through its site. For now, the deal marks OpenAI's first public step into the BCI space — and a signal that the race to build the interface between human brains and AI systems is now drawing capital from the largest labs in the field.