Skip to main contentMerge Labs is a new Neuralink rival developing brain-computer interfaces. Merge Labs is a new Neuralink rival developing brain-computer interfaces. by Dominic PrestonAug 13, 2025, 11:15 AM UTCImage: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty ImagesDominic Preston is a news editor with over a decade’s experience in journalism. He previously worked at Android Police and Tech Advisor.If you’ve enjoyed Elon Musk’s ongoing beef with Sam Altman and OpenAI, get ready for a whole new chapter: soon they’ll be rivals not just in AI, but in brain-computer interfaces too.The Financial Times reports that Altman and OpenAI are backing a new company called Merge Labs developing brain implants, making it a pretty direct rival to Musk’s Neuralink.This has clearly been an interest of Altman’s for a while though — he wrote about “the merge” between humans and machines on his personal blog back in 2017, and connects it pretty directly to his work at OpenAI:The merge can take a lot of forms: We could plug electrodes into our brains, or we could all just become really close friends with a chatbot. But I think a merge is probably our best-case scenario.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Dominic PrestonThe Verge DailyA free daily digest of the news that matters most.Email (required)