Can You Invest in Neuralink?
Elon Musk’s Neuralink has captured the public’s attention and imagination with its futuristic vision of connecting the human brain to computers.
A July 2024 report by IDTechEx projects that the overall brain computer interface (BCI) market could reach a market value of over US$1.6 billion by 2045.
“We anticipate that the market for non-invasive solutions will grow before the commercialization of invasive solutions from players such as Neuralink,” stated the research firm’s Senior Technology Analyst Dr. Tess Skyrme. “However, the long-term opportunity within the assistive technology market is more likely to be captured by the likes of Elon Musk.”
As Neuralink continues to make strides, investors are wondering how to get a piece of the action by investing in the neurotechnology venture.
Because it is privately held, Neuralink stock isn’t accessible to the average person — but that doesn’t mean its impossible to get exposure to this future-looking medical research company. Read on to learn how to participate in the growth of this exciting business.
What is Neuralink?
Neuralink is a neurotechnology startup that was founded in 2016 by Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Musk and a team of eight scientists and engineers in 2016.
It was first reported on in 2017, and two years later, in June 2019, the company held and streamed its public launch event to showcase the technology it is developing: an innovative brain-computer interface.
Instead of using traditional electrodes, which according to a company whitepaper can be bulky and damaging to brain tissue, Neuralink’s BCI uses “ultra-thin threads” that are implanted into the brain using a robotic device that resembles a sewing machine. Once implanted, the electrodes develop a BCI, stimulating the brain and monitoring activity, and the threads connect to a custom-designed chip that can read data from groups of neurons.
Potential uses of BCI technology include helping paralyzed individuals regain control of their limbs and restoring vision. Musk told his audience during Neuralink’s 2019 launch event that this technology could have a wide range of applications in medicine, such as restoring sensory and motor function in people with spinal cord injuries or neurological disorders. Additionally, an early goal of development is translating neuron signals into computer commands, which would allow humans to control devices like computers and smartphones with their brainwaves.
Musk has claimed that BCI could even facilitate direct communication between humans and machines, although some members of the neuroscientific community are skeptical. Other experts have suggested that Neuralink’s work is not necessarily novel — as Dr. Jason Shepherd, an associate professor of neurobiology at the University of Utah, told Business Insider in 2020, “All the technology that he showed has been already developed in some way or form. Essentially what they’ve done is…
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