OpenAI and Peter Thiel's Funds Lead $45M Seed Round for Coherence Neuro, a Brain Implant Cancer Therapy Startup
OpenAI Startup Fund and Founders Fund co-led a $45M seed round for Coherence Neuro, which develops implantable devices to detect and treat brain tumors. This move confirms that major AI players view 'brain data' as a critical new resource for model training.
Artificial intelligence labs are increasingly betting on "brain data." According to WIRED, Coherence Neuro, a startup developing brain implants to detect and combat cancer, has raised a $45 million seed round co-led by the OpenAI Startup Fund and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund.
Ben Woodington, CEO and co-founder of Coherence Neuro, stated that there is "growing synergy" between large AI labs and companies building devices to decode the brain, known as brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). He argued that capturing data to train better models and optimize treatments is becoming super important, noting that AI companies seem aligned with the thesis that this novel data source will be valuable. Woodington described AI as a "perfect use case" for BCIs because these devices generate massive datasets too large for humans to analyze directly, requiring AI models to read raw neural data and link it to actions or pathological states.
This investment is part of a broader trend of AI expansion into biotechnology. In January, OpenAI announced direct investment in Merge Labs, a BCI company co-founded by its CEO Sam Altman, which came out of stealth with $252 million in initial funding. At the time, OpenAI stated it was backing Merge Labs due to a belief that BCIs "will create a natural, human-centered way for anyone to seamlessly interact with AI." Additionally, Founders Fund has previously backed Elon Musk's Neuralink and CTRL-labs, a wristband technology acquired by Facebook in 2019.
Unlike traditional BCI companies focused on restoring function for paralyzed individuals, San Francisco-based Coherence Neuro is developing AI models to decode subtle electrical signals associated with brain tumors. The company claims it already knows how to detect these signals in animals to determine whether cancer is growing, shrinking, or recurring, and is working to translate these findings for human research. This summer, Coherence briefly tested its implant's recording ability in three patients undergoing brain tumor removal surgery at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia, providing an initial safety check.