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Elon Musk’s $9 billion brain chip company identified itself as a “Small Disadvantaged Business” in a filing to the federal government.
Musk, the world’s richest man, co-founded Neuralink in 2016. The company works to develop brain chips that allow people to manipulate computers and other technology just by thinking.
The company’s profile with the Small Business Administration was last updated on April 27. The agency’s website says the business attested that it was a Small Disadvantaged Business “when registering with SAM.gov.” The SBA says it did not vet this self-certification.
Neuralink’s ownership structure is unclear and the company did not provide a list of principals, which includes owners, executives and other key decision makers, to the SBA. The company employs between 201 and 500 people, according to its LinkedIn page.
To qualify as a Small Disadvantaged Business, the agency says a company must be majority owned and controlled by at least one person who is socially and economically disadvantaged.
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The agency considers someone economically disadvantaged if they have “been impaired due to diminished capital and credit opportunities as compared to others in the same or similar line of business who are not socially disadvantaged.”
The designation is created to ensure that disadvantaged small businesses gain access to opportunities federal contracting opportunities, CNBC reports. Each year, the federal government spends about 10 percent of its total annual federal contracting funds on Small Disadvantaged Businesses, the SBA says.
The Justice Department has previously fined businesses for misrepresenting their status as a Small Disadvantaged Business.
Neuralink co-founder Musk has a net worth of more than $412 billion.
The company raised $650 million in its most recent funding round, earning buy-in from big-name investors like Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, CNBC reports. Thiel, a conservative venture capitalist, is known for co-founding PayPal with Musk and mentoring Vice President JD Vance.
The Independent has contacted Neuralink for comment.
Neuralink’s SBA profile was last updated during the time that Musk led the Department of Government Efficiency, under the designation of a “special government employee” of the Trump administration. Under Musk, DOGE gutted entire federal agencies, terminated thousands of contracts and laid off thousands of federal employees.
Musk worked closely with Trump during this time, and was at one point considered the “First Buddy” before the relationship blew up in a public feud last month. Since then, Musk has accused Trump of being named in the Epstein Files – but later deleted those remarks – while the president has said he’d “take a look” at deporting the billionaire.
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Last year, 30-year-old Noland Arbaugh became the first person to receive a Neuralink implant. Arbaugh, who has been paralyzed from the shoulders down since 2016, told the BBC the chip has allowed him to use a computer. He’s able to move the cursor by thinking about wiggling his fingers, and can even play chess and video games using the brain chip.
“Honestly I didn’t know what to expect, it sounds so sci-fi,” Arbaugh said.
Arbaugh spoke to Musk before and after the implantation surgery. The billionaire was “just as excited as I was to get started,” Abraugh said.
In January, Musk said at least three people had received Neuralink chips. The billionaire wants to implant the chips in 20 to 30 more people by the end of 2025.
