Elon Musk Plans Mass Production of Neuralink Chips This Year

Elon Musk plans to ramp up production of Neuralink brain chips this year. Neuralink develops brain-chip implants designed to help people with paralysis or neurological disorders, Polly Thompson reported for Business Insider.

Neuralink is developing technology that allows people to control computers using an implanted microchip. (Photo: Neuralink X)

Musk said the procedure to implant the devices will be “almost entirely automated,” in a post on X.

The startup, co-founded by Musk in 2016, is developing technology that allows people to control computers using an implanted microchip.

Its initial focus is on helping patients with severe neurological conditions — such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, paralysis, or vision impairment — to communicate and regain independence.

Musk has also said Neuralink’s chips could eventually be used to merge human consciousness with artificial intelligence (AI).

He wrote recently that the medical process to implant the chips will “move to a streamlined, almost entirely automated surgical procedure in 2026.”

Device threads will pass through the dura — the tough outer membrane protecting the brain and spinal cord — without the need to remove it, Musk said.

“This is a big deal,” Musk said while promoting the technology.

The chip is about the size of a coin. From it, an array of thin threads — each roughly 20 times thinner than a human hair — fan out into the patient’s brain. Implantation requires a surgeon to remove a portion of the skull before a robotic arm inserts the chip.