OpenAI and Sam Altman are reportedly creating a startup rival to Elon Musk's Neuralink

Sam Altman is preparing to co-found a new company funded by OpenAI that will go up against Elon Musk's Neuralink, The Financial Post reported. The startup, called Merge Labs, will use AI for its brain-computer interface and compete directly with Neuralink, along with other nascent companies in the field like Precision Neuroscience and Synchron.

The name Merge Labs comes from a term Altman used in 2017 called "the merge" that describes the moment human brains and computers come together. The company will raise funds, most from OpenAI's ventures team, that will set its valuation at $850 million. Altman will co-found Merge Labs with Alex Blania (from World, an eyeball scanning company also backed by OpenAI) but won't invest any capital himself, according to three people with direct knowledge of the project.

Altman has been interested in the topic of machine-brain interfaces for ...