Neuralink teams up with Spain, California for Elon Musk’s new ‘bionic eye’ project

Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain chip company, has partnered with researchers in Spain and California on a new clinical trial for what’s being called a “Smart Bionic Eye.”

The trial quietly appeared on ClinicalTrials.gov in late July, with sponsorship listed under the University of California at Santa Barbara, according to Bloomberg. The study is meant to explore how brain-computer interfaces can help blind patients see again using artificial intelligence.

The trial hasn’t started using Neuralink patients yet. The listing says the research will involve Neuralink participants “once available,” and enrollment is currently by invitation only.

The experimental tech is being designed to help users recognize faces, walk outdoors, and read; all through a digital system wired into the brain. There are no human test subjects confirmed yet, but the plan is to eventually implant the device into real people once it’s ready for that stage.

Neuralink targets 2030 for launch of Blindsight vision chip

The clinical study is part of a bigger roadmap that includes Blindsight, the name of Neuralink’s chip designed specifically to restore vision. Blindsight has only been tested in monkeys so far. Musk’s company is aiming to get the chip into patients by 2030, with expectations to reach $1 billion in yearly revenue by 2031, alongside other implant projects.

There are two other devices in the company’s pipeline. One is called Telepathy, a brain chip that lets users control external devices with their mind. The second, named Deep, is being built to treat tremors and Parkinson’s disease.

The company presented these plans to investors recently, with projections showing five large clinics opening in the coming years to support 20,000 surgeries annually by 2031. The numbers are based on a $50,000 reimbursement estimate per surgery.

Musk is banking on regulatory approval for Telepathy in the U.S. by 2029, which would let the company perform around 2,000 surgeries a year and pull in $100 million annually from that single product. By the following year, once Blindsight is live, those figures jump to 10,000 surgeries per year and an expected $500 million in revenue.

Less than 10 human patients have Neuralink implants so far

Despite all the projections, fewer than ten people have received Neuralink implants to date. And none of them are using the device to treat blindness or Parkinson’s. The only confirmed use cases have been with paralyzed patients who’ve used the chip to browse the internet, play games, and edit videos using only their minds. These are part of earlier clinical trials, and the patients haven’t been tied to the new bionic eye study.

The project is one of several steps Neuralink is taking to push brain-chip tech forward. The company has already pulled in $1.3 billion from investors and now holds a $9 billion valuation, based on data from PitchBook. But even with the money and hype, none of these devices (from Neuralink or any of its competitors) have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for permanent use in humans.

Other brain-implant companies are also in the race, trying to prove their devices can safely stimulate or record brain signals. But as of now, no brain-computer interface has been cleared for permanent, everyday human use. The FDA is still reviewing safety and effectiveness data for most of these technologies.

Musk has a long history of pushing deadlines. He said in 2015 that Tesla would have fully self-driving cars within three years. That didn’t happen. He delayed the launch multiple times. It was only last month that Tesla’s Robotaxi finally started road testing, nearly a decade later.

The trial involving California and Spain doesn’t have a public timeline yet for results or next phases. What’s clear is that Neuralink is now directly involved in the bionic eye project and that it’s connected to the eventual deployment of Blindsight. As of now, there’s no word from Elon Musk or his team on when exactly human patients will start receiving these implants.

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