Future Neuralink Whole Brain Interfaces for $1000 Each

By Brian Wang

Elon Musk gave a 30-minute lecture on @Neuralink last month at the 2024 Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS). The roadmap is achieve millions of electrodes connecting to billions of neurons for a whole brain interface that costs about $1000-2000 each with implant surgery only taking 10 minutes.

The first generation Neuralink device has 1000 electrodes and 100 electrodes are reading at about 10 bits per second per electrode.

The second generation Neuralink device should have 3000 electrodes and 1500 electrodes will be reading.

Future Neuralinks will have a million or more electrodes.

Neuralink will be able to fix any brain related problem that involves signals in and out. This means curing blindness where the optic nerve is damaged by directly stimulating the visual cortex. It could cure epilepsy and paralysis caused by nerve or spinal cord damage.

There are about 3000 neurosurgeons in the USA. Neuralink needs to scale the surgery with automation to ultimately provide the service to tens of millions and then billions of people. The neurosurgeons would shift overseeing the operating machines. This is similar to eye surgeons overseeing the LASIK laser machines.

In high volume (millions?), the Neuralink device will drop to $5000-10000. In really high volume (tens or hundreds of millions per year) the Neuralink device will drop to about $1000 each.

They have a plan for 600 second (10 minute) implant surgery. They will also be able to remove devices and switch in an upgraded device.