Biology & drug discovery · San Francisco, US · founded 2025
Merge Labs: who founded it, who funds it
Merge Labs is a San Francisco AI drug discovery lab founded in 2025 by Sam Altman, Alex Blania and Mikhail Shapiro, who came from OpenAI, Tools for Humanity and Caltech. What it is building: brain-computer interfaces co-founded by Sam Altman; backed by OpenAI. No funding round has been disclosed. It has not released anything outsiders can use yet.
- Founders
- Sam Altman (ex-OpenAI), Alex Blania (ex-Tools for Humanity), Mikhail Shapiro (ex-Caltech)
- Founders from
- ex-OpenAI, ex-Tools for Humanity, ex-Caltech
- Location
- San Francisco, US (North America)
- Valuation
- $850M estimate, per source
- Raised
- · disclosed
- Investors
- OpenAI
- What ships
- Research only
Sources
- neolabs.fyi neolabs.fyi
News
-
Oct 6, 2026
+2 more coverage
- Startup Fortune Bridge Neurotech Emerges To Challenge Sam Altman's Merge Labs In Brain Interfaces
- Dealroom Bridge Neurotech launches with $13.5M to challenge Altman-backed Merge Labs
-
Sep 9, 2026
+2 more coverage
- Yahoo Finance Merge Labs and Butterfly Network Partner to Advance Ultrasound-Based Brain-Computer Inter…
- Yahoo Finance Sam Altman-Backed Merge Labs Picked Butterfly’s Chips for Brain Interfaces. Is This the B…
- Feb 2, 2026
-
Jan 15, 2026
+1 more coverage
- OpenAI Investing in Merge Labs
- Dec 19, 2025
Investors who back other labs here
- OpenAI also: Physical Intelligence, Isara, Chai Discovery
Same research area
- Chai Discovery $3.8B · San Francisco, US
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- Isomorphic Labs · · London, UK
- Latent Labs · · London, UK
- Xaira Therapeutics · · South San Francisco, US