Implant to thread tip · Today → 2016
From a startup with one big question to people controlling computers with their thoughts. Read it like the implant on the left: the coin-sized N1 at the top is today, and following its thread down goes back to 2016.
Tap a category to show only the implant, patients, demos, or company milestones. Want everything Musk has built in one place? See the main timeline.
Patients
Implanted: January 2026
Kenneth Shock receives his N1 implant as part of Neuralink’s speech trial. In September, Neuralink shares a clip of him speaking through the device, and Musk reshares it.
Key featureTurning the brain signals for speech into words, aimed at people who have lost the ability to talk.
Read more →Patients
In the spring, Brad Smith, who has ALS and can’t move or speak, shares a video he edited himself using his implant, narrated by an AI copy of his old voice.
The Implant
In September, the FDA gives Neuralink’s Blindsight project “breakthrough device” status. The goal: let people who are blind see, by sending signals straight to the part of the brain that handles vision.
Read more →Patients
In the summer, a second patient, Alex, gets an implant and soon uses it to design parts in 3D computer-aided design software.
Patients
January 2024
Noland Arbaugh, paralyzed from the shoulders down after a diving accident, becomes Neuralink’s first patient.
Key featureHe moves a computer cursor just by thinking about it: within weeks he’s playing chess and video games and browsing the web from bed, with no one helping.
Read more →Company
In May, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves Neuralink’s first study in people.
Read more →Demos
In April, Neuralink shows a monkey named Pager playing the video game Pong using only his thoughts: a preview of what the implant could do for people.
Read more →Demos
In August, Neuralink shows a pig with an implant. As she sniffs around her pen, the screen lights up with signals from the part of her brain connected to her snout.
The Implant
July 2019
Neuralink shows how its implant is supposed to work.
Key featureFlexible “threads” thinner than a human hair carry the electrodes, and a robot sews them into the brain while avoiding blood vessels, a job too delicate for human hands.
Read more →Company
Musk and a small team of scientists and engineers start a company around one question: can a brain implant give people with paralysis their independence back?
Read more →That’s the tip of the thread: a startup in 2016. For the whole story across every company, see the main timeline, or read more on the Neuralink page.
From four legs to two planets
Hover over a figureTap a figure · swipe to keep walking →
From four legs to two planets. Hover over or tap any figure. The one on the right can call home.