Gabe Newell’s Startup to Launch a Neuralink Rival by Year’s End

Gabe Newell — the founder of Valve and Steam — is backing a brain-implant startup that aims to compete with Elon Musk’s Neuralink.

According to the company’s website, the implant is primarily being developed to help patients suffering from severe and currently incurable brain disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

The device, built by Starfish Neuroscience, is said to be easier to implant and operate than Neuralink’s system. Unlike Neuralink, which focuses on a single region of the brain, Starfish engineers plan to work with multiple regions simultaneously.

The chip is expected to both record and stimulate brain activity. Starfish plans to release the first version by the end of 2025.

“We anticipate our first chips arriving in late 2025 and we are interested in finding collaborators for whom such a chip would open new and exciting avenues,” said Starfish neuroengineer Nate Cermak.

Some technical specifications of the chip were also revealed:

• Power consumption: 1.1 mW during recording
• Size: 2×4 mm
• Capable of both neural recording and stimulation
• 32 electrode sites, 16 simultaneous recording channels (18.75 kHz)
• One current source for stimulating any electrode pair
• Built-in impedance monitoring
• Fabricated using TSMC’s 55-nanometer process

Starfish plans to integrate the chip into a fully wireless, battery-free implant. Compared to Neuralink’s 6 mW chip, Starfish’s 1.1 mW design is significantly more energy-efficient. It’s also much smaller — Neuralink’s chip measures 23×8 mm and includes a battery.