Valve founder Gabe Newell invested in a startup producing brain chips for medicine

Valve founder Gabe Newell has backed a new startup called Starfish Technologies, which is developing brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) to treat neurological disorders, TechSpot reports.

Starfish Technologies is not related to the gaming industry in any way - the new company is focused on medical applications. Its first chips should appear by the end of 2025. The developers are working on miniature, energy-efficient and wireless implants that will be able to read and stimulate activity in multiple areas of the brain at once.

The technology is aimed at disorders associated with impaired neural connectivity, such as Parkinson's disease. Starfish is looking for partners among experts in wireless power transfer, neural interfaces, and communication systems.

Valve has previously explored brain implants in a gaming context, and Sony, Tencent, and Apple are also showing interest in the technology. However, Starfish wants to focus on medical use cases first.

Starfish has already released the technical specifications of its chip. The device measures 2×4 mm and consumes only 1.1 mW of power during standard recording. It is capable of recording brain activity (spikes and local field potentials) from 16 channels simultaneously at a frequency of 18.75 kHz, using 32 electrodes. The chip also supports electrical stimulation, has built-in impedance monitoring, voltage measurement during stimulation, and digital signal processing, which allows it to work through low-speed wireless interfaces. The chip is manufactured using the TSMC 55 nm process technology.

By the way, Starfish's main competitor is Neuralink, a company founded by Elon Musk. Neuralink is already testing its BCI systems on humans - the first patient received the implant in January 2024, and as of now its functionality has been preserved, despite some disconnection of some of the threads.

Neuralink uses a more massive implant with 1,024 electrodes, consumes about 6 mW of power, and requires periodic wireless charging. The company is targeting both medical and experimental brain interface scenarios.