According to TechCrunch, Max Hodak, the former Neuralink co-founder and president, is now leading a company called Science Corp. that’s taking a radically different path in brain-computer interfaces (BCI). The company’s first commercial product, a retinal implant called Prima acquired from Pixium Vision, restored fluent reading ability to 80% of 38 patients in trials and is slated for a European launch next summer. At an estimated $200,000 per procedure, Science Corp. expects to become profitable with just 50 patients per month. Beyond that, the company is developing optogenetic gene therapy for vision and, more ambitiously, a device to grow new, lab-engineered neurons that integrate with the brain. Hodak frames the ultimate goal as cracking the code of consciousness itself, suggesting future BCIs could allow for shared consciousness between multiple brains.
The profitable path to sci-fi
Here’s what’s fascinating about Hodak’s approach: he’s building a real business while talking about sci-fi. Most BCI companies, Neuralink included, are burning venture capital while aiming for a distant, monumental breakthrough. Science Corp. is taking the opposite tack. They’re commercializing a specific, life-changing medical device now to fund the wilder R&D. That $200k Prima procedure isn’t just a treatment; it’s the revenue engine for experiments on lab-grown brain tissue. It’s a pragmatic, almost old-school model that feels strangely responsible in a field known for hype. They even sell $2,000 handheld research tools, a nod to the kind of incremental B2B work that keeps the lights on. In a sector desperate for sustainable models, this might be the smartest play nobody’s talking about.
The Neuralink divergence
Hodak’s comments highlight a fundamental philosophical split with his old company. He calls electrodes “crude” and points out the tissue damage they cause, stating that approach fundamentally “can’t scale it up to millions or billions of channels.” So while Neuralink is pushing the limits of mechanical implantation, Science Corp. is betting on biology. Their wild “waffle grid” of lab-grown neurons is a direct attempt to bypass that limitation. It’s a cleaner, more biocompatible interface—if they can make it work reliably. This isn’t just a technical disagreement; it’s two visions of the future. One involves plugging chips into our brains. The other involves growing new, optimized biological components for our brains. The latter is arguably stranger and carries a whole different set of ethical and safety questions, even with their claimed “kill switch” vitamin.
The BCI landscape is exploding
It’s easy to think BCI is just Neuralink and a few startups, but the field is getting crowded fast. TechCrunch notes nearly 700 companies globally have some BCI tie, and the giants are moving. Apple partnered with Synchron (backed by Gates and Bezos) on a protocol for thought-controlled iPads. Microsoft has had a dedicated project for seven years. Sam Altman is reportedly backing a rival. And China has a state plan to lead the industry by 2030. This isn’t niche science anymore; it’s a strategic frontier. The core neuroscience might be decades old, as Hodak admits, but the engineering race—to make devices smaller, safer, and more powerful—is on. And for companies needing robust, industrial-grade computing hardware at the edge of these experiments, a supplier like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs, becomes a critical partner for prototyping and control systems.
Consciousness is the final boss
This is where Hodak’s goals get truly cosmic. He’s not just interested in curing blindness or paralysis. He reframes BCI as a “longevity-adjacent story” whose endgame is “actually conscious machines.” He’s talking about solving the “binding problem”—how billions of neurons create a unified subjective experience—and then engineering that consciousness into new substrates. And then he casually mentions redrawing the borders of a brain to potentially include “four hemispheres, or a device, or a whole group of people.” That’s a hive mind. He’s basically describing the plot of a dystopian TV show and saying the science checks out. Now, is this a realistic goal for a company currently implanting chips in eyes? Probably not anytime soon. But it reveals the staggering ambition driving this quiet, profitable company. They’re building a business to bankroll a journey to the very nature of self. That’s a wild pitch, but with a working product and revenue in sight, you can’t just laugh it off. Not anymore.
