According to reports from The Financial Times, OpenAII’s chief executive is working on a new brain-to-computer interface company called Merge Labs. Merge Labs is reportedly still in the early stages, but the startup value can be around $ 850 million. People familiar with the case say that funding can come to a large extent from OpenaiI’s Ventures Arm, although no final commitment has been made and the conditions can still change. The project is asked to include Alex Blania, which leads equipment for humanity, a company that is best known to its eye-scanning device, used to verify whether there is a real human. The same company, Sam Altman’s biometric ID project, called World, is working in the US and UK to establish eye scanning orbes in public places.

Merge Labs will enter the same area as Alone Musk’s neurlinks. Established in 2016, the neurlinks are developing chips that can be transplanted into the brain, allowing people with severe paralysis to control equipment using their ideas. The neurlinks are currently running a human test and raised $ 600 million in the $ 9 billion evaluation earlier this year.

Both companies are working on technology that can dramatically change how humans interact with machines, and some believe that these events can one day lead to “the eccentricity”, the point where technology and humans merge.

Altman has shown interest in this idea over the years. In a 2017 blog post, he wrote: “Although the merge has already started, it is going to be very strange. We will be the first species to design our own descendants.” At that time, he was still working with Kasturi in openi. Musk left the organization in 2018 and the relationship between the two is broken.

His rivalry has been particularly public this week. It began when Musk accused Apple of favoring Openai in his app store rankings and threatened legal action. Ultman replied that Musk manipulated his social media platform, X, so that he could benefit himself and harm the rivals. The exchange quickly rose into personal insults, both used their own AI Chatbot to make fun of each other.

This is not the first time the two collided. Musk is currently sueing Altman, OpenEAI president Greg Brockman and Microsoft, claiming that he left OpenEAI’s original non-profit mission in favor of commercial advantage. The case is scheduled for testing in March 2026.

Despite the warm words, both are moving with ambitious AI-Linked Ventures. Musk has continued to promote the neurlink and his AI company XAI, while Altman brain-computers are firm to challenge them in space.