Neuralink Founding Member Working on Chip Design Said to Have Departed Firm in Recent Weeks

A founding member of Elon Musk’s Neuralink left the company in recent weeks, according to two people familiar with the matter, the latest in a string of departures at the brain implant startup. Paul Merolla, who helped launch Neuralink in 2016 and worked on its chip design program, is no longer with the San Francisco area company, the sources said. The reason for Merolla’s departure and his career plans could not be learnt. Merolla, Musk and Neuralink representatives did not respond to requests for comment.

There were eight people, including Merolla and Musk, who helped set up Neuralink six years ago, according to the two sources. Merolla’s exit leaves only one Neuralink founding member, implant engineer Dongjin “DJ” Seo, remaining with the company other than Musk, who was listed in a January corporate filing as the company’s chief executive.

One of the other founders was Neuralink’s former president Max Hodak, who worked closely with Musk on its launch. It is not known if possible setbacks at Neuralink contributed to the departures.

Musk said in a 2019 presentation that Neuralink was aiming to receive regulatory approval for trials to implant chips into humans by the end of 2020, but the company has yet to receive such an approval or bring a product to market. Musk, who is also chief executive of electric car maker Tesla, has described Neuralink’s aspirations as offering “a Fitbit in your skull.”

Prior to joining Neuralink, Merolla was a research scientist at IBM Corp’s “brain-inspired computing group.”

The Fremont, California-based Neuralink has about 300 employees and counts Google Ventures among its investors.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Elon Musk and Shivon Zilis, a top executive at his brain-chip startup Neuralink, had twins in November of 2021.

In April, Musk and Zilis filed a petition to change the name of the twins to “have their father’s last name” and contain their mother’s last name as part of their middle name, the report said, citing court documents. A month later, a Texas judge approved the petition, according to the report.

© Thomson Reuters 2022

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