BCI Atlas

Merge Labs: a Sam Altman co-founded research lab pursuing less-invasive, ultrasound-based brain-computer interfaces, launched in Jan 2026 with a reported $252M seed round.

Company — American

Merge Labs

Official site → San Francisco, CA, USA

BCI · non-invasive · ultrasound · Merge Labs
Last reviewed against public sources: Oct 4, 2026

Merge Labs describes itself as a research lab with the long-term mission of bridging biological and artificial intelligence to maximize human ability, agency, and experience. It is developing new approaches to BCIs that aim to be safe and to interface with the brain at much higher bandwidth than current devices.

This is an early-stage company. Public detail on devices, trials, and results is limited, so this brief sticks to what the company and major outlets have reported.

At a glance

  • Website: https://merge.io/
  • Launch: came out of stealth on Jan 15, 2026.
  • Funding (reported): a seed round reported as $252M (Wired, Bloomberg via SiliconANGLE), with OpenAI writing the largest check; Bain Capital and Gabe Newell also participated. TechCrunch cited a source putting it at $250M at an $850M valuation. Treat the exact figure and valuation as reported, not company-audited.
  • Founders and team: co-founded by Sam Altman and Alex Blania with scientists including Mikhail Shapiro, Tyson Aflalo, and Sumner Norman (per the company site and Inside BCI).
  • Approach: ultrasound-based reading and modulation of brain activity rather than implanted electrodes, per Wired.
  • Headquarters: San Francisco, California (per LinkedIn profiles of its founders; not confirmed on the company site).

Partnership

On Sep 1, 2026, Butterfly Network and Merge Labs announced a multi-year partnership: Merge gains access to Butterfly’s ultrasound-on-chip technology, and Butterfly is described as Merge’s exclusive CMOS-MEMS chip-based ultrasound partner. Source: https://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/merge-labs-and-butterfly-network-partner-advance-ultrasound-based-brain-computer

What to watch

  • First human data, and whether the approach reaches a regulated trial
  • Hardware details from the Butterfly partnership
  • Whether the less-invasive approach can match the bandwidth of implanted arrays

Sources