Minimally Invasive Brain Chip Maker Precision Neuroscience Raises $250M Series D

Hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds are now chasing the race to wire brains directly into computers. Sam Altman’s OpenAI-backed Merge Labs raised $252 million, Synchron closed a $200 million Series D, and Elon Musk’s Neuralink brought in $650 million at a Series E. Now Precision Neuroscience has joined the pack.

Precision builds the Layer 7™ Cortical Interface, a surface-level brain-computer interface (BCI) that is implanted without a craniotomy and designed to be safely removable. Its 1,024 microelectrodes sit on a film thinner than a human hair, conforming to the brain’s surface to record high-resolution neural signals without penetrating tissue. The device received FDA 510(k) clearance in April 2025 for up to 30 days of clinical use, and the company recently demonstrated high-resolution recording across 4,096 electrodes and real-time decoding of intended movement.

The clinical record has built up steadily. In January, Precision announced a partnership with Medtronic to integrate Layer 7 with Medtronic’s StealthStation surgical navigation system — the first publicly announced alliance between a brain-implant startup and a major medical device maker. Layer 7’s design and early clinical results were published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, and Precision continues clinical work with Johns Hopkins University. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine are using Layer 7’s high-resolution recordings to build a refined map of the human motor cortex. In July, Precision added Dr. John Donoghue — founder of BrainGate and a 2026 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering laureate — as a scientific advisor.

Precision was co-founded in 2021 by Benjamin Rapoport and Michael Mager. Rapoport, Precision’s Chief Science Officer, is a neurosurgeon who holds an MD from Harvard Medical School and a PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT. He was one of Neuralink’s eight founding members in 2016 before leaving in 2018 over concerns that BCI needed to be far safer and more scalable to become clinical reality; he remains an assistant professor of neurosurgery at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. CEO Mager holds an AB from Harvard College and an MPhil in Economic History from Cambridge, and previously worked as a partner and portfolio manager at Hong Kong hedge fund Ward Ferry.

Precision has closed an oversubscribed $250 million Series D, co-led by Pershing Square Inc., the Ackman Oxman Institute, and an undisclosed leading life sciences investment fund. The Duquesne Family Office, B Capital, ARK Invest, Invus, Mubadala Capital, Mirae Asset Capital, Korea Investment Partners, Hitachi Ventures, and JSL Health Capital also participated. The round brings Precision’s total funding to $430 million. The New York Times reported the round values the company just over $1 billion.

CEO Michael Mager said the next phase of BCI will be defined by more than technology alone, pointing to the clinical network, regulatory position and manufacturing base the company has built while putting safety at the center of its product design. Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square and co-founder of the Ackman Oxman Institute, said the brain can recover from even catastrophic injury and that neurotechnology will be central to the next generation of cures and treatments, adding that Precision has the team, technology and ambition to lead the field.

The funding will expand Precision’s clinical program, advance Layer 7 through the next stages of FDA review, and build out commercialization infrastructure. Precision has now completed more than 100 patient procedures across 18 major medical institutions — the largest clinical footprint in BCI — and runs its own MEMS manufacturing facility in Texas to produce its electrode arrays in-house.

The Competition

BCI funding is piling in across several competing approaches. Neuralink raised a $650 million Series E at a $9 billion valuation last June, using electrodes implanted directly into the brain; it has implanted its device in five patients with severe paralysis to date.

Synchron takes a catheter-based, non-surgical approach with its Stentrode platform. It raised a $200 million Series D last November, bringing total funding to $345 million, and became the first BCI company to integrate Apple’s BCI-HID protocol into iOS devices.

Science Corporation, founded by Max Hodak, is focused on vision restoration rather than device control for paralysis. It raised a $230 million Series C this March at a post-money valuation of $1.5 billion, bringing its total funding to $490 million.

Merge Labs, co-founded by Sam Altman, is pursuing a non-invasive approach using ultrasound rather than implanted electrodes. It raised a $252 million seed round with OpenAI as its largest backer, valuing the company at $850 million.