Brain-Computer Interfaces

A paralyzed person controlled a cursor via a 96-channel Utah array — the field's proof of concept.

Noland Arbaugh received the 1,024-electrode N1; weeks later he moved a cursor and played chess by thought.

A BrainGate2 intracortical BCI at UC Davis decoded a man with ALS's attempted speech into on-screen words and synthesized voice in real time at up to ~97-99% accuracy from a large vocabulary (NEJM) — the first speech BCI accurate enough for natural conversation. It has since been used independently at home for thousands of hours, marking the shift from lab demo to daily communication.

The Layer 7 cortical interface (1,024 electrodes) got 510(k) clearance — a regulatory first for the new wave.

Synchron users gained native thought-control of iPhone, iPad and Vision Pro via Apple's BCI HID profile.

Paradromics recorded from its Connexus BCI in a human during a 20-minute procedure, widening the race.

A $650M Series E valued Neuralink at a reported $9B, with five patients implanted.

Science closed an oversubscribed $230M Series C (total ~$490M) to commercialize PRIMA — a retinal BCI that restored form vision in dry-AMD patients (NEJM-published). A European launch later this year would make it the first BCI vision product on the market.

Science began PRIMA's European commercial launch under a CE mark valid across 30 countries — the first BCI cleared anywhere for form-vision restoration. Its subretinal photovoltaic implant plus camera glasses restored functional central vision in geographic-atrophy (dry-AMD) patients; 80% read letters, numbers and words in the NEJM-published trial. First German procedures could come in September.

Surgeons at CU Anschutz/UCHealth implanted a BCI into a paralyzed patient's higher-functioning cortex — not the usual motor cortex — a world first, aiming for more natural and complete sensory-and-motor control. Part of a Caltech/USC consortium using a Blackrock Neurotech array.

China's NMPA cleared Neuracle's coin-sized NEO implant (developed with Tsinghua) for commercial sale to restore hand function after spinal-cord injury — the first invasive-class BCI approved for market anywhere, ahead of Neuralink.

Neuracle's NMPA-approved NEO implant was surgically placed in a paying patient at a Shanghai hospital — a man who lost hand function in a car crash a decade ago — the first time a commercially approved BCI has been implanted anywhere, four months after clearance and ahead of Neuralink.

China launched its first multicenter clinical trial of a domestically built 128-channel fully implantable invasive BCI (18 May 2026, led by Beijing Tiantan Hospital). It pairs ultra-thin flexible intracortical electrodes — designed to cut immune response and record single-neuron spikes — with a wireless, rechargeable implant, scaling China's home-grown invasive BCI from a single approval toward multi-site human trials that rival Neuralink and Paradromics.

A brain implant cleared for routine commercial use, not just investigational trials — not yet here.