Elon Musk’s Neuralink has finally implanted the first brain chip in a human being.
This is history in making, but it’s also scaring some people off.
READ MORE: Elon Musk’s Neuralink is looking for a volunteer to have a chip implanted in their brain
Neuralink is a unique company, a million miles away from anything else Elon Musk does.
This is because Neuralink’s headline act sounds pretty spooky, since it’s all about implanting chips in the human brain.
That sounds like the stuff of futuristic dystopian movies.
In practical terms, however, this technology has the potential to change our lives in the future.
Last year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the company clearance to conduct tests on humans after successfully implanting chips in monkeys.
The ultimate goal is to help people regain body functionality following an injury.
One example Musk has cited on more than occasion during various interviews is people who have lost their sight.
With Neuralink, these chips can send signals to the brain, which then turn said signals into vision.
This is not going to happen tomorrow, or possibly in the next 10 years – but that’s the idea.
Neuralink chips are designed to detect neuron spikes and help them operate when they can’t do so on their own.
This technology is still in its infancy stage, and Neuralink’s value reflects that.
Neuralink is valued at ‘just’ $5 billion.
It’s a lot of money in absolute terms, but it means this is Elon Musk’s least valuable company.
Tesla has a market cap of $598 billion at the time of writing, after that we’ve got SpaceX ($180 billion) and Twitter / X ($41 billion).
Even though it’s lost a good chunk of its value since Musk’s acquisition, Twitter / X is still worth around $41 billion, and it is regaining momentum after reaching its all-time low in 2023.
Even MrBeast, the world’s most subscribed YouTuber, is now active on X with original content, which is apparently keeping advertisers happy.
Last but definitely not least, we’ve got to mention Elon Musk’s other company, the one we often forget about, the so-called ‘Boring Company‘.
Musk started it “as kind of a joke” (his words) and after selling things like the ‘Burnt Hair’ perfume and a literal flamethrower, the company is now focusing on a rather serious, and useful, endeavor.
The Boring Company has built, and is currently running, a hybrid highway / underground system under the streets of Las Vegas.
It’s quite clever.
It’s basically like an underground railway system with tunnels under Las Vegas, except it uses normal roads instead of rails, and it uses Tesla cabs instead of trains.
The Boring Company is currently worth between $5 and $6 billion.
Some of the images in this article were created using AI
