OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman is reportedly in the early stages of launching a new brain–computer interface startup, Merge Labs, according to the Financial Times.

The company, which could be valued at about $850 million, is said to be in talks to raise funds, potentially from OpenAI’s ventures arm. Discussions are still preliminary, and OpenAI has not yet committed to investing.

Merge Labs is understood to be working with Alex Blania, head of Tools for Humanity, the company behind Altman’s iris-scanning digital identification project. The startup would enter a competitive field currently dominated by Elon Musk’s Neuralink, which is developing implantable brain chips aimed at helping people with severe paralysis control devices using their thoughts. Neuralink, founded in 2016 and valued at $9 billion after a $600 million Series E in June, is already conducting human trials.

The move could reignite rivalry between Altman and Musk, who co-founded OpenAI together before Musk’s departure in 2018. Relations between the two have soured in recent years, with both exchanging public criticism, including a spat on social media this week.

Altman has previously written about “The Merge,” a concept describing the integration of humans and advanced technology, which he has suggested could shape the evolution of future generations. Merge Labs would mark his most direct effort yet to compete in the race toward such a future — and a challenge to Musk’s vision of the so-called “singularity.”