Elon Musk\u2019s health tech company Neuralink labeled itself a \u201csmall disadvantaged business\u201d in a federal filing with the U.S. Small Business Administration, shortly before a financing round valued the company at $9 billion.<\/p>\n
Neuralink is developing a brain-computer interface (BCI) system, with an initial aim to help people with severe paralysis regain some independence. BCI technology broadly can translate a person\u2019s brain signals into commands that allow them to manipulate external technologies just by thinking.<\/p>\n
Neuralink\u2019s filing, dated April 24, would have reached the SBA at a time when Musk was leading the Trump administration\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency. At DOGE, Musk worked to slash the size of federal agencies.<\/p>\n
MuskWatch first reported on the details of Neuralink\u2019s April filing.<\/p>\n
According to the SBA\u2019s website, a designation of SDB means a company is at least 51% owned and controlled by one or more \u201cdisadvantaged\u201d persons who must be \u201csocially disadvantaged and economically disadvantaged.\u201d An SDB designation can also help a business \u201cgain preferential access to federal procurement opportunities,\u201d the SBA website says. <\/p>\n
The Department of Justice has previously fined companies for making false claims about their SDB status.<\/p>\n
Musk, the world\u2019s wealthiest person, is CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, in addition to his other businesses like artificial intelligence startup xAI and tunneling venture The Boring Company. In 2022, Musk led the $44 billion purchase of Twitter, which he later named X before merging it with xAI.<\/p>\n
Jared Birchall, a Neuralink executive, was listed as the contact person on the filing from April. Birchall, who also manages Musk\u2019s money as head of his family office, didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Neuralink, which incorporated in Nevada, closed a $650 million funding round in early June at a $9 billion valuation. ARK Invest, Peter Thiel\u2019s Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital and Thrive Capital were among the investors. Neuralink said the fresh capital would help the company bring its technology to more patients and develop new devices that \u201cdeepen the connection between biological and artificial intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under Musk\u2019s leadership at DOGE, the initiative took aim at government agencies that emphasized diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). In February, for example, DOGE and Musk boasted of nixing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of funding for the Department of Education that would have gone towards DEI-related training grants.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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