Can you invest in Neuralink? Elon Musk’s neurotechnologic company

If you follow Elon Musk’s work, you’ve likely heard of Neuralink – his neurotechnology company on a mission to integrate human intelligence with computers, treat neurological disorders, and ultimately bridge the gap between human cognition and artificial intelligence.

Neuralink, founded by Elon Musk in 2016, focuses on developing implantable brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) – tiny chips placed in the brain that allow direct communication between neural signals and external devices. The technology consists of ultra-thin flexible electrode “threads” (thinner than a human hair), a coin-sized implantable computer chip that processes neural signals, and a specialised surgical robot that precisely places those threads into brain tissue. Its primary near-term applications are medical – restoring mobility and communication for people with spinal cord injuries, paralysis, or other severe neurological conditions – though Musk’s long-term vision extends to cognitive enhancement and brain-AI integration.

As of mid-2026, Neuralink is valued at approximately $9-9.65 billion following its $650 million Series E round in June 2025, with multiple human patients now implanted with the N1 device. The company plans to begin high-volume production of its brain chips in 2026, alongside scaling its automated surgical procedures.

Want to know if you can invest in Neuralink stock? Wondering about alternative investments with similar exposure? We’ve got you covered.

Can you invest in Neuralink stock?

Unfortunately, retail investors cannot directly invest in Neuralink shares. Neuralink – founded in 2016 by Elon Musk and a team of leading neuroscientists – is a privately held company, meaning its shares are not listed on any public stock exchange and are not available through regular brokerage accounts.

Most of Neuralink’s funding has come from venture capital and private investors. Its institutional backers include ARK Invest, Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund (Peter Thiel), Lightspeed Venture Partners, Thrive Capital, DFJ Growth, Valor Equity Partners, Google Ventures (GV), Vy Capital, and reportedly the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), along with Elon Musk himself as a significant contributor. To date, Neuralink has raised approximately $1.3 billion across multiple funding rounds, with the most recent being a $650 million Series E in June 2025 at a $9 billion pre-money valuation.

Neuralink has not announced any specific IPO plans as of 2026 – and given the substantial capital runway from its recent Series E, the company has no immediate need to access public markets. However, the pioneering nature of brain-computer interface technology has attracted significant investor attention, and many are watching closely for any signs that the company might eventually go public.

That said, there are still ways for accredited investors to gain exposure to Neuralink through pre-IPO marketplaces and secondary share platforms – covered in the next section.

What is Neuralink?

Neuralink, founded by Elon Musk in 2016, is a pioneering neurotechnology company developing brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) – implantable chips placed directly in the brain to monitor and potentially stimulate neural activity. The technology aims to enable direct, two-way communication between the human brain and external devices.

Neuralink first attracted broad public attention in 2017, with its major public debut coming in 2019 when Musk and his team showcased the technology in a live-streamed event. The company’s technology consists of three core components:

• The N1 chip: a coin-sized implantable computer chip embedded with over 1,024 thin electrode “threads” (each thinner than a human hair) that monitor and stimulate neural activity.
• The R1 surgical robot: a specialised robot designed to precisely insert these flexible threads into the brain tissue, automating what would otherwise be a highly delicate neurosurgical procedure.
• The Link software: the underlying software platform that processes neural signals from the implant and translates them into device commands (cursor control, typing, app navigation, etc.).

Neuralink’s technology holds significant promise for treating a range of neurological conditions, including spinal cord injuries, paralysis, ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, blindness, and depression. The longer-term vision extends to enabling people to control digital devices with their thoughts, restoring lost motor or sensory functions, and – more speculatively – integrating human cognition with artificial intelligence.

The company has faced significant scrutiny along the way. Reports have alleged rushed animal testing, with internal records indicating around 1,500 animal deaths since 2018, raising ethical questions and triggering federal investigations. Neuralink has defended its practices but these concerns remain part of the public discussion around the company’s methods.

Despite these challenges, Neuralink received FDA clearance to begin human clinical trials in May 2023. Since then, Neuralink has implanted its N1 device in multiple human patients – the first being Noland Arbaugh in early 2024, who has since demonstrated cursor control, video game play, and computer navigation purely through thought-based input. Several additional patients have been implanted since, all under FDA-supervised clinical trials targeting individuals with paralysis from cervical spinal cord injury or ALS. Musk has publicly suggested that Neuralink could implant hundreds to over 1,000 patients during 2026 as the company scales its automated surgical procedures and begins high-volume production of its chips.

Who owns Neuralink?

Launched in 2016 by Elon Musk (CEO of Tesla and SpaceX), Neuralink began with his initial investment of approximately $100 million. Over the following years, the company has raised substantial private capital across multiple funding rounds:

• Series C ($205M, 2021): led by Vy Capital, with participation from Google Ventures, OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman, Founders Fund, DFJ Growth, and others.
• Series D ($280M, August 2023): led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, valuing the company at approximately $5 billion post-money.
• Series E ($650M, June 2025): a major round at a $9 billion pre-money valuation, led by ARK Invest, Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Thrive Capital, with reported participation from sovereign wealth funds including Qatar Investment Authority (QIA).

In total, Neuralink has raised approximately $1.3 billion across its funding history, reaching a current valuation of $9-9.65 billion as of mid-2026.

The company’s co-founders alongside Musk included a team of leading neuroscientists and engineers: Flip Sabes, Ben Rapoport, DJ Seo, Paul Merolla, Vanessa Tolosa, Max Hodak, Tim Hanson, and Tim Gardner. Some of these original co-founders have since left the company (notably Max Hodak, who departed in 2021 to found his own BCI startup, Science Corporation – now a Neuralink competitor), while others remain involved or retain equity stakes.

Other notable investors across rounds include Google Ventures (GV), ARCH Venture Partners, Founders Fund, Vy Capital, Valor Equity Partners, DFJ Growth, and ARK Invest. Despite the growing institutional investor roster, Elon Musk remains the largest individual shareholder of Neuralink through his continued capital contributions and founder equity.

Will Neuralink go public?

The question on everyone’s mind: “Will Neuralink go public?” As of mid-2026, Neuralink remains a privately held company with no formal IPO announcement, and an IPO is unlikely in the immediate term. The company’s $650M Series E in June 2025 provided significant capital runway, removing any near-term pressure to access public markets. However, given strong investor interest in the broader brain-computer interface and biotechnology sectors, a future Neuralink IPO remains plausible – just not imminent.

Neuralink’s valuation trajectory has been steep. The company was valued at around $2 billion in 2021, reaching $5 billion in August 2023 following its Series D round, and most recently jumping to $9-9.65 billion in June 2025 after the $650 million Series E – more than quadrupling its valuation in just under four years. Secondary market transactions have at times implied even higher valuations.

Any future Neuralink IPO would need to navigate several significant hurdles:

• FDA approval pathway: Neuralink needs to demonstrate sustained safety and efficacy across a growing patient population to move from clinical trials to a commercially approved medical device. This is typically the single biggest gating factor for a medical device IPO.
• Revenue track record: public investors typically want to see a meaningful revenue runway before an IPO. Neuralink remains pre-revenue at the time of writing, with implants currently administered as part of clinical trials.
• Ethical and regulatory scrutiny: the company continues to face scrutiny around its animal testing practices and the broader ethical implications of brain-computer interfaces. Any public listing would amplify these conversations.
• Competitive landscape: rival BCI companies including Synchron, Science Corporation, Precision Neuroscience, and Paradromics are developing competing or alternative approaches, which could influence Neuralink’s competitive positioning at IPO.

For now, the most realistic timeline for a Neuralink IPO is the late 2020s at the earliest – and only after the company has scaled its commercial implant volume, achieved broader FDA approval, and demonstrated a credible path to recurring revenue.

Neuralink IPO

Let’s start with the basics: what is an IPO? An Initial Public Offering (IPO) is the process through which a private company first sells shares of its stock to the public, becoming listed on a stock exchange (NYSE, NASDAQ, etc.). It’s how companies transition from being owned by founders, employees, and private investors to having publicly tradeable shares accessible to retail investors. For prospective Neuralink investors, an IPO would represent the first realistic opportunity to buy shares through a standard brokerage account.

However, Neuralink has not announced any specific IPO date, timeline, or filing. The company has remained focused on its clinical trials, FDA approval pathway, and scaling its production and surgical infrastructure – all priorities that take precedence over a public listing in the near term. With substantial capital runway from its June 2025 Series E, Neuralink has no immediate financial pressure to file for an IPO.

Investors and enthusiasts watching for any IPO signals should focus on a few key indicators that historically precede public listings:

• Confidential S-1 filing with the SEC (typically 3-6 months before going public).
• Investment bank selection for IPO underwriting (a public announcement would likely follow).
• FDA commercial approval milestones for the N1 device.
• Significant secondary market trading activity on platforms like Forge Global or Hiive, which often signals growing investor interest ahead of a public listing.

Until any of these signals emerge, accredited investors looking to gain exposure to Neuralink today need to use the private secondary market route covered later in this article.

Neuralink stock price

As of mid-2026, Neuralink remains a privately held company – which means there is no publicly disclosed share price available to retail investors through standard brokerage platforms. Unlike publicly listed companies whose stock prices update in real time during market hours, Neuralink’s share value is primarily determined through:

• Primary funding rounds: when Neuralink raises new capital, the negotiated valuation sets a benchmark share price (most recently, the $9 billion pre-money valuation in the June 2025 Series E).
• Secondary market transactions: existing shareholders (employees, early investors) sometimes sell shares on private marketplaces like Forge Global, EquityZen, or Hiive. These transactions provide intermittent data points on what Neuralink shares trade for, though prices can fluctuate significantly above or below the most recent primary funding round valuation.
• 409A valuations: internal valuations conducted for employee equity purposes, typically conservative and not publicly disclosed.

Based on the most recent funding round, Neuralink is valued at approximately $9-9.65 billion as of mid-2026 – more than quadrupling from its $2 billion valuation just five years earlier. Some secondary market platforms have at times implied even higher valuations, with reports of Forge Price data suggesting values that exceed the primary funding round implied price – reflecting strong investor demand for any available exposure to the company. However, these secondary prices are illiquid, infrequent, and not directly comparable to public market pricing.

Important: secondary market access to Neuralink shares is generally restricted to accredited investors – typically requiring $200,000+ annual income or $1M+ net worth (US definition; similar thresholds apply in other jurisdictions). Standard brokerage accounts cannot access Neuralink shares.

Neuralink stock alternatives

If you want exposure to neurotechnology, brain-computer interfaces, and the broader AI revolution but can’t directly buy Neuralink stock today, several alternative routes can give you partial or thematic exposure to these themes. Below are the main categories worth considering:

Thematic ETFs

ETFs offer diversified exposure to the broader neurotechnology, biotechnology, and AI themes without needing to pick individual stocks. Options worth considering:

• iShares Neuroscience and Healthcare ETF (IBRN): tracks an index composed of US and non-US companies that may benefit from growth and innovation in neuroscience and brain-related healthcare.
• Global X Robotics & Artificial Intelligence ETF (BOTZ): tracks the Indxx Global Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Thematic Index, providing exposure to companies developing robotics and AI – including some surgical robotics manufacturers relevant to the BCI space.
• iShares Genomics Immunology and Healthcare ETF (IDNA): broader healthcare innovation exposure, including some companies working on neurological and brain-related conditions.
• ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK): Cathie Wood’s flagship innovation fund – notably, ARK Invest was one of the lead investors in Neuralink’s Series E round in 2025, though ARKK itself doesn’t hold Neuralink directly.

Publicly listed BCI and neurotechnology companies

Direct competitors and adjacent players in the brain-computer interface and neurotechnology space – some publicly traded, some still private:

• Synchron: Neuralink’s most direct BCI competitor, with an FDA-cleared device implanted via blood vessels rather than open brain surgery. Still privately held, but has received significant backing from Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos’s Bezos Expeditions, and ARCH Venture Partners.
• Science Corporation: founded by former Neuralink co-founder Max Hodak in 2021, working on its own brain-computer interface technology. Privately held.
• Precision Neuroscience: developing a thin, flexible neural interface that sits on top of the brain rather than penetrating tissue. Privately held but watched closely for IPO signals.
• Paradromics: developing high-data-rate BCI technology for medical applications. Privately held.

Publicly traded biotechnology and pharma adjacencies

Established public companies with significant exposure to neurological conditions and neuroscience innovation – tradeable through any standard brokerage account:

1. Amgen (AMGN): one of the largest biotech companies globally, with a strong pipeline focused on neurodegenerative diseases and neurological conditions. Listed on NASDAQ.
2. AstraZeneca (AZN): global pharmaceutical leader with a significant neuroscience portfolio, including medications for mental health and neurological conditions. Listed on LSE and NASDAQ.
3. Biogen (BIIB): specialist in neurological diseases including Alzheimer’s, ALS, and multiple sclerosis – directly aligned with the conditions Neuralink targets. Listed on NASDAQ.
4. Medtronic (MDT): major medical device company with established deep brain stimulation products for Parkinson’s and other neurological conditions. Listed on NYSE.
5. Boston Scientific (BSX): medical device manufacturer with neuromodulation products and growing investment in neural interface technologies. Listed on NYSE.

Secondary market access (accredited investors only)

If you’re an accredited investor (typically $200K+ annual income or $1M+ net worth in the US, with similar thresholds elsewhere), private secondary market platforms can occasionally provide actual Neuralink share access:

• Forge Global (NYSE: FRGE): one of the largest pre-IPO secondary marketplaces, sometimes lists Neuralink shares from employees and early investors.
• EquityZen: another established pre-IPO platform with periodic Neuralink share availability.
• Hiive: newer secondary marketplace focused on pre-IPO transactions.

These platforms typically require accredited investor status verification, minimum investment thresholds (often $10K-$50K+ per transaction), and offer limited liquidity – you may not be able to sell easily until Neuralink goes public.

How to invest in these alternatives

Considering the alternatives mentioned above (thematic ETFs and publicly traded biotech/pharma companies), our team has identified three brokers that work well for retail investors looking to gain exposure to Neuralink-adjacent themes. These options are particularly useful given that Neuralink itself remains private and inaccessible through standard brokerage accounts.

Interactive Brokers: founded in 1978 and listed on NASDAQ (IBKR), Interactive Brokers is one of the world’s most trusted brokers. It offers an enormous range of financial products (stocks, ETFs, options, bonds, futures), access to 150+ markets across 30+ countries, and some of the lowest FX conversion fees in the industry. It’s also launched IBKR GlobalTrader – a streamlined mobile trading app with fractional shares from $1, ideal for newer investors looking to access the US market and Neuralink-adjacent stocks like AMGN, BIIB, MDT, or BOTZ.

eToro: the leading social trading platform with 40+ million users globally, listed on NASDAQ (ticker: ETOR) since May 2025. eToro lets you copy other traders’ portfolios, invest in pre-built Smart Portfolios, or trade independently. Real ETFs are commission-free, US stocks carry a $1 commission, and real cryptocurrency trading is available (other fees apply).

Trading 212: a London-based fintech with 5 million+ clients and €30 billion+ in assets, offering commission-free US stocks and ETFs, fractional shares from €1, and the popular Pies & AutoInvest feature for building diversified thematic portfolios (handy for building a “Neuralink-adjacent” basket including BOTZ, IBRN, AMGN, MDT, and others). FX conversion is one of the lowest in European retail at 0.15%.

The bottom line

Looking to invest in Elon Musk’s pioneering Neuralink venture? You can’t buy Neuralink stock directly through a standard brokerage account, since the company remains privately held. With approximately $1.3 billion raised across multiple funding rounds and a current valuation around $9-9.65 billion following its June 2025 Series E, Neuralink continues to focus on its FDA-supervised clinical trials, scaling implant production, and developing its brain-computer interface technology. There’s no announced IPO timeline as of 2026, though a future public listing remains plausible later in the decade.

If you want exposure to the broader brain-computer interface, neurotechnology, and AI revolution today, you have several realistic options:

• Thematic ETFs: IBRN (neuroscience), BOTZ (robotics/AI), IDNA (genomics/healthcare), or ARKK (Cathie Wood’s innovation fund – notably a lead Series E investor in Neuralink itself).
• Publicly traded biotech and medical device companies: Amgen (AMGN), AstraZeneca (AZN), Biogen (BIIB), Medtronic (MDT), and Boston Scientific (BSX) all have meaningful exposure to neurological conditions, neurotechnology, or neural interface adjacencies.
• Secondary market access (accredited investors only): platforms like Forge Global, EquityZen, and Hiive occasionally list actual Neuralink shares for accredited investors (typically requiring $200K+ income or $1M+ net worth).

To execute any of these strategies, well-regulated brokers like Interactive Brokers, eToro, and Trading 212 all offer access to the relevant ETFs and publicly listed stocks. While none of these alternatives is a perfect substitute for direct Neuralink ownership, together they provide a meaningful way to participate in the broader BCI and neurotechnology theme as it develops.