Blackrock Neurotech, rival of Elon Musk's Neuralink, receives funding from Peter Thiel

Peter Thiel (Screengrab of video on Twitter/@nixonfoundation)

Blackrock Neurotech, a firm working on chips for brain implants, has got the backing of venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who, in 1998, had co-founded PayPal with Elon Musk, CNBC reported.

Palantir co-founder Thiel has backed Blackrock Neurotech with a $10 million investment, taking an undisclosed number of shares in the company.

Blackrock Neurotech has not taken any significant venture capital funding until now, the neurotech company’s CEO Marcus Gerhardt said.

The firm, which was founded in 2008, has been selling software and hardware to the neuroscience research community for more than 10 years and now it is devising its own brain-computer interface (BCI) devices.

This means, it will pose a direct competition to Tesla boss Elon Musk’s Neuralink, which was co-founded by him in 2016.

Blackrock and Neuralink are both trying to develop BCIs that would help people with limited mobility and other disabilities do things they were not able to so far.

For instance, Neuralink recently showcased how its “Link” device could make monkeys play video games with their mind. The company is looking to start human trials later this year.

Blackrock Neurotech, on the other hand, has claimed that it has already installed its BCI into 28 patients across the United States, China, and Europe, along with rodents and primates.

Gerhardt said: “There are human patients using our implants and technology already to accomplish things directly with their minds that were unimaginable 10 years ago.”

Tetraplegic patients are reportedly using their chips to move their robotic limbs directly from the brain, and a speech-impaired patient has been able to communicate using a voice synthesiser controlled by his mind, the company has claimed.

Although the purported success of these human trials gives an edge to Blackrock, Neuralink’s chip can record more brain cell activities as it has more “channels” (recording sites), claimed Andrew Jackson, Professor, Neural Interfaces, Newcastle University.

Blackrock’s BCIs have only one recording site at the tip of each of their rigid silicon pronged electrodes, whereas Neuralink’s BCIs record activity at multiple points along each flexible electrode sewn into the brain.

Moreover, Blackrock’s human trials involved wires passing through the skin, but the neurotech firms are currently working on wireless devices.