The Zhitong Finance App learned that on Friday local time, Musk announced that after 100 days of successful surgery for the first patient participating in the brain-computer device implantation experiment at the beginning of the year, Neuralink (Neuralink) has officially begun recruiting a second patient to receive a brain implant.

According to information, in January of this year, Neuralink completed the first human implantation operation for a brain-computer interface device. The subject, Noland Arbaugh (Noland Arbaugh), suffered a spinal cord injury in a diving accident many years ago and was unable to move below his shoulder. After surgery, he was able to control external devices with his senses, and he also used a computer to play chess and games.

However, before, Nolan's “superpowers” quickly expired. On May 8, local time, Neuralink said in a blog post that within a few weeks after surgery on the patient Nolan Abbott in January, some wires embedded in brain tissue fell off, affecting the rate of information transmission and losing some data, causing the device to not work properly.

Neuralink acted quickly, and software engineers adjusted the algorithms for neuronal data recording and made changes to the way the data was analyzed and transmitted to the computer. Nolan quickly returned to a state where she was able to chat and operate the computer.

According to Nolan's agreement with Neural Connect, he will provide data to the company within a year after implanting the device, after which they will discuss whether to deactivate or remove the device next. However, Nolan said he would rather keep this device and upgrade the interface in his mind when the next generation is ready. Nolan said, “I bet the next person to get this thing will feel the same way as me; once you try it, you won't be able to stop. This device really blew me away.”

Musk has publicly stated that the original intention of founding Neuralink was to believe that AI might threaten human civilization and eventually become a stepping stone for more advanced living organisms. To avoid this fate, humans need to find a way to connect the brain to a computer. Neuralink's mission is to create “an ultra-high bandwidth brain-computer interface connecting humans and computers.” Up to now, Neuralink has completed more than 700 million US dollars in financing. The company is rumored to have been valued at more than 5 billion US dollars, making it the world's highest-valued brain-computer interface company.

Brain-computer interfaces have huge potential for development, and the future market size can reach trillion dollars. According to McKinsey's research report, the annual global market for brain-computer interfaces from 2030 to 2040 is likely to be between 70 billion US dollars and 200 billion US dollars (about 510 billion to 1.4 trillion yuan).

Currently, there are more than 200 companies providing brain-computer interface products and services around the world, mainly in the US and China. Internet technology giants are getting involved in the brain-computer interface field, and tech giants such as Neuralink, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, which are Musk's brain-computer interface companies, have also begun laying out and developing underlying technology. After 2014, companies such as Ali, Baidu, and iFLYTEK entered the brain-computer interface field by investing in mergers and acquisitions, and launched their own artificial intelligence brain programs one after another.

According to market analysis, brain-computer interface technology has two huge potential application scenarios in medicine and the metaverse. As early as 2021, game giant MihaYou invested in the Encephalology Center at Ruijin Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University. The cooperation mainly involved the development and clinical application of brain-computer interface technology; the metaverse company Meta is also making efforts to release a bracelet input device with a brain-computer interface, etc. Dongcai Securities previously stated that brain-computer interfaces are expected to become the next generation of human-computer interaction technology, and in the future, with the continuous development of the metaverse and continuous exploration of brain science, brain-computer interfaces will become the next generation entrance to the metaverse after VR/AR.

Related concept stocks:

Xinwei Medical-B (06609): Xinwei Medical participated in the world's first non-human primate interventional brain-computer interface test. The company pioneered the first one-stop solution for stroke treatment and prevention in China in the field of neurological intervention. It has a full product pipeline from acute ischemic stroke and neurovascular stenosis treatment, ischemic stroke prevention, hemorrhagic stroke treatment to interventional devices, and has applied for more than 300 patents.

Nanjing Panda Electronics Co., Ltd. (00553): In June of last year, the company stated on the investor interactive platform in response to the development progress of the two projects “Research and development of key technologies for multi-modal human-computer interaction system integration based on brain-computer interface technology” and “digital twin emergency warning system key technology research and development for accurate monitoring of optical cables” that the brain-computer interface R&D project was jointly declared by the company, relevant universities, and the Suzhou Brain-based Research Institute. Currently, the project is still in the initial research stage.

Innovative Medicine (002173.SZ): The company cooperated with various parties to jointly fund the establishment of a “brain-computer interface” project company, which transforms R&D and achievements of high-tech technologies such as “brain-computer interface” technology, biomedical engineering-related technology, and medical device development into the content of the cooperation.