Valve Founder’s Neural Interface Company Set to Launch First Brain Chip This Year

Valve’s Gabe Newell has this wild neural chip company, Starfish Neuroscience. Yeah, they’re cooking up a custom brain-chip. Might hit the scene sooner than we think. Kind of surreal, right?

In this blog post—randomly stumbled upon it—they’re all about this ultra-low power neural chip, teaming up with imec (big R&D folks). Starfish is dreaming of future brain implants. The kind that’s wireless, no batteries included—like magic?—and can poke around (and talk to) multiple brain spots. Apparently, this is crucial for fixing messed-up circuits in the brain. Like in sci-fi movies, but real. Gabe’s been chattering about these ‘read and write’ brain gigs for ages.

The whole purpose? They’re targeting those clunky, power-hungry implants in use today—often needing a forklift to fit in your head (kidding!). Starfish thinks shrinking these bad boys can ease up surgery and let ’em go everywhere in the brain.

And get this—their chip is a teeny, tiny 2x4mm! Like, you could lose it in a drawer. Specs on this brain-chip from Gabe’s brainchild show off some crazy numbers (here’s where it gets all techie, soz, not my forte):

– Uses a just 1.1mW. Imagine your phone with that kind of restraint.
– Really small, duh—2x4mm.
– Does both recording and, uh, stimulation (sounds like a fancy massage tool, doesn’t it?).
– 32 electrode sites and all sorts of techy mumbo-jumbo allowing it to chat with the brain over wireless.

But, hey, it’s early days. They’re calling all brain-brainiacs to jump in and explore. Could be out there by 2025. Gabe’s throwing hints that one day, we’ll all be living in ‘The Matrix.’ Freaky but fascinating.

He spilled to IGN in 2023 about reading and writing to the motor cortex. Said it’s easier than making you feel cold. Go figure! The human brain, turns out, is a mixed bag—some bits chatty, others stubborn as heck.

Mike Ambinder, before he left Valve, dropped mind-bending tidbits too—how brain tech could jazz up video games, reading players like an open book. Imagine your game keeping tabs on your every twitch and telling the story from there. Kudos to Brad ‘SadlyItsBradley’ Lynch for the heads-up on this juicy scoop.

Honestly, no clue where all this leads, but feels like the start of something mind-blowingly futuristic. 🌌