Valve’s Gabe Newell-Backed Neuralink Rival to Debut First Brain Chip this Year

Gabe Newell, the CEO and co-founder of Valve, the firm that created Half-Life, DOTA 2, and Counter-Strike, as well as the leading PC game distribution platform Steam, has long experimented with the notion that a player's brain should be more integrated with his computer.

 In-house psychologists started researching people's biological reactions to video games more than ten years ago; Valve previously thought about using earlobe monitors for their first virtual reality headgear. At GDC in 2019, the business openly discussed the concept of brain-computer interfaces for gaming.

However, Newell chose to separate the concept. He subtly included Starfish Neuroscience, a new brain-computer interface business, that same year. Starfish Neuroscience has now disclosed plans to manufacture its first brain chip later this year.

Cutomised Electrophysiology Chip

Brad Lynch, a Valve watcher, saw Starfish's first blog post, which makes it apparent that a full implant is not currently in the cards. Starfish is not claiming to have developed the systems to power it or the parts to implant it into a person's head.

This piece is the custom "electrophysiology" chip that is intended to record brain activity (similar to how Neuralink can "read your mind" so patients can interact with computers) and stimulate the brain (for disease therapy).

According to Starfish neuroengineer Nate Cermak, who bolded theirs, the company expects its first chips to arrive in late 2025 and is interested in collaborating with companies for whom such a chip would open new and exciting avenues.

It is possible that Starfish will end up partnering with other companies for wireless power or even the final brain implant.

Goal is to Access Multiple Brain Region: Starfish

However, according to Starfish, the objective is to create a less intrusive and smaller implant than the competitors, one that doesn't need a battery, and one that can "enable simultaneous access to multiple brain regions" as opposed to just one location.

 It can operate with wireless power transmission instead, according to Starfish, using only 1.1 milliwatts during "normal recording".

In contrast, Neuralink's N1 has 64 brain-implanted threads with 1,024 electrodes, a chip that used about 6 milliwatts as of 2019, a battery that requires wireless charging on a regular basis, and an overall implant size of about 23 mm in width and 8 mm in thickness (not including the chip). According to Starfish, connecting to several brain regions at once may be crucial for treating conditions like Parkinson's disease.

"There is growing evidence that circuit-level dysfunction, in which the interactions between brain regions may be misregulated, is involved in a number of neurological disorders," adds Cermak.

According to the company's updated website, in addition to several simultaneous brain implants, it is developing a brain-reading, robotically guided transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) system to treat neurological conditions like depression and bipolar disorder, as well as a "precision hyperthermia device" to target and destroy tumours with heat.