Paul Merolla, Chief Design Executive Behind Musk's Neuralink Quits Company

A founding member of Elon Musk¡¯s brain implant company, Neuralink has recently left the company, reveals a Reuters report.

Paul Merolla

Paul Merolla, who helped boot Neuralink in 2016 was instrumental on its chip design program is no longer a part of the company. The reason for his departure and future prospects remain unknown as of now.

Neuralink was set up by eight individuals in total, including Merolla and Musk, six years ago. With Merolla¡¯s exit, the only founding member that remains in the company apart from Musk -- implant engineer Dongjin ¡®DJ¡¯ Seo.

According to a January corporate filing, Musk was listed as the company¡¯s chief executive. Another founder who left the company was Max Hodak who worked as the former president of Neuralink and worked closely with Musk on its launch.

What is causing these departures?

It is unknown that the ongoing setbacks have resulted in these departures. In 2019, Musk had announced that they were planning to receive regulatory approval for trials to implant chips in humans by the end of 2022. Nearly two years later, the company has still been unable to receive such an approval, let alone bring a product to the market.

Neuralink

Merolla, before signing up with Neuralink, was a research scientist at IBM Corp¡¯s brain-inspired computing group. The brain-implant startup currently employs 300 individuals and is funded by Google Ventures among several other investors.

A few weeks ago, reports revealed that Musk and Shivon Zilis -- a top executive at Neuralink -- had twins in November 2021.

In April, both Musk and Zilis filed a petition to change the name of the twins to have their father¡¯s last name and contain their mother¡¯s last name as their middle name. The petition was approved by a Texas judge a month later.

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