The Deep View: AI Rivalry Elon Musk’s Neuralink has a competitor

Posted on August 13, 2025 by michelleclarke2015
THE AI RIVALRY
Altman’s new rival to Elon Musk’s Neuralink
The Altman-Musk rivalry has reached its next frontier… brain implants. Sam Altman is co-founding a brain-computer interface startup called Merge Labs to directly compete with Elon Musk’s Neuralink, with OpenAI’s ventures team expected to provide most of the $250 million funding round at an $850 million valuation.
Their escalating competition spans multiple fronts:
Musk left OpenAI in 2018, founded xAI in 2023, and both released flagship models this month. Musk is suing to block OpenAI’s for-profit transition. They clashed this week over alleged App Store bias favoring ChatGPT over Grok. Now competing directly in the race to merge human brains with computers
Merge Labs represents more than another tech rivalry. The startup’s name derives from “the merge” — the theoretical moment when humans and machines integrate seamlessly. And Altman’s choice of co-founder reveals a deeper strategic vision.
Alex Blania, CEO of Tools for Humanity, is joining Altman to launch Merge Labs. Blania runs WorldCoin (recently rebranded as World), Altman’s controversial iris-scanning digital identity project that aims to distinguish humans from AI in an increasingly synthetic world.
WorldCoin and Merge Labs tackle the same fundamental challenge of how humans maintain agency and identity as AI becomes more sophisticated. WorldCoin uses biometric scanning to create a “proof of personhood” system, while Merge Labs plans to develop “high-bandwidth brain implants to integrate human cognition with AI.”
WorldCoin has faced significant regulatory scrutiny, with investigations in France, the UK and suspensions in Kenya and Brazil over privacy concerns. Yet it has raised $250 million and verified 2 million users globally through its distinctive orb-shaped iris scanners.
The timing suggests Altman sees brain-computer interfaces as the next logical step in his human-AI integration thesis. In 2017, he wrote about the possibility of human-computer integration occurring as early as 2025, later noting that recent technological advances could enable “high-bandwidth brain-computer interfaces.”
While Altman won’t be involved in Merge Labs’ day-to-day operations or contribute personal funds, his backing through OpenAI’s ventures arm signals a serious commitment. Neuralink, founded by Musk in 2016, recently raised $650 million at a $9 billion valuation and plans to implant 20,000 people annually by 2031.
The partnership between Altman and Blania suggests Merge Labs won’t just compete on technology, but on philosophy, positioning brain implants not as pure enhancement tools, but as necessary infrastructure for preserving human identity in an AI-dominated future.
The WorldCoin connection makes this brain implant venture feel less like innovation and more like empire-building. Altman already controls the most valuable AI company and runs a biometric identity system that’s been banned in multiple countries. Now he wants to literally get inside people’s heads.
There’s something unsettling about the same person pushing both the AI systems that might replace human cognition and the brain interfaces supposedly needed to keep humans relevant. It’s a convenient problem-solution loop that positions Altman as both the cause of and cure for human obsolescence in an AI world.

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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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