Elon Musk says Neuralink plans high-volume brain chip production, automate surgery in 2026

Elon Musk has said that its brain implant startup Neuralink will begin ‘high-volume production’ of brain-computer interface devices and move to an entirely automated procedure in 2026. The billionaire also noted that the devices would go through the dura and won't require removing them.

“Neuralink will start high-volume production of brain-computer interface devices and move to a streamlined, almost entirely automated surgical procedure in 2026. Device threads will go through the dura, without the need to remove it. This is a big deal.” Musk wrote in a post on X

The Neuralink brain implant chip is roughly the size of a coin which enables patients to control on-screen cursors and digital devices via simple commands.

The company has so far implanted the chip in 12 people, according to a post by Neuralink in November. The first patient of the Neuralink chip was Noland Arbaugh who received the implant in 2024 and has since even talked about how the chip helped improve his life.

In an interview earlier this year, Arbaugh had said that the brain-computer interface (BCI) hellps him control his computer and do things like playing Mario Kart, controlling his television, and turning his air purifier on and off without moving other parts of his body.

Other implantees of the chip have shared similar stories including playing first-person shooter games, controlling their smart devices and even browsing social media.

“We’re aiming to give people who have… A quadriplegic, or maybe have complete loss of the connection to the brain and body, a communication data rate that exceeds normal human” Musk had explained the vision behind the company's endeavours during an episode of Lex Fridman podcast last year.

The billionaire has previously claimed that there are over 1,000 Neuralink implants achievable by 2026.

Neuralink had also received the "breakthrough device" designation from the US Food and Drug Administration last year. The designation is aimed to development and review of devices which are under development and Musk had said that the device called Blindsight would "enable even those who have lost both eyes and their optic nerve to see,"

On the technology, Musk had earlier said, “At first, the vision restoration will be low res… And then over time, I think you get to higher resolution than human eyes. And you could also see in different wavelength”