Published on Jan. 09, 2026

The "Gestala (Chengdu) Technology Co., Ltd." was officially established in China's western Sichuan province on December 31, 2025. It is China's first startup pursuing the brain-computer interface (BCI) technology using ultrasound.

Most current attempts to connect brain waves to computers and external devices like wheelchairs rely on implanting electrodes into the patients' brain.

An example of this method is the clinical trials currently underway in the United States, where Elon Musk's company Neuralink has implanted devices in twelve human subjects as of September 2025, the Chinese media Huaerjie Jianwen reported. (In Chinese)

Leveraging ultrasound instead of electrical signals has several advantages, scientists and startup founders in China believe. For one thing, it is non-invasive, and future devices could consist of nothing more than high-tech helmet worn by patients hoping to control wheelchairs, exoskeletons or other devices with their brain waves alone.

Ultrasound is also, according to Peng Lei, a more efficient way to tap the power of human brainwaves. Current point-based monitoring of electrical signals can cover only a few thousand neurons, representing just 0.13 percent of the brain’s cortical surface.

With ultrasound technology, however, whole regions of the brain can be monitored. "For this reason, we believe that ultrasound-based, whole-brain readable and writable BCIs represent the next core technological direction", said Peng Lei at the 2026 GeekPark Innovation Conference, adding that more evidence of this has emerged over the course of the past year.

The more data the scientists can record, the more their research can be integrated with artificial intelligence. "At the data and AI level, we are building an “ultrasound brain library,” recording signal data from regions related to language, vision, memory, motor control, and other human behaviors", the founder said in his speech.

Eventually, the scientists hope that the recorded data will serve as a foundation model for human brain research. This mirrors AI foundation models, which medical pioneers describe as “two sides of the same coin that can ultimately explain each other.”

"As AI continues to make machines more "human-like", there are parallel efforts in making humans more machine-like", write the authors of a recent Morgan Stanley report called "Neuralink: AI in the brAIn" published on October 8, 2025.

„As AI moves into the physical world through expressions ranging from robotaxis to humanoids and autonomous weapons systems, we recommend paying closer attention to developments in brain-computer interface", write the authors of the report.

Startup founders worldwide certainly do. Merge Labs, a BCI company co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, was scheduled to be spun off as an independent company, trying to raise as much as US$250 million at a valuation of US$850 million, media reports said. Merge Labs is reportedly also experimenting with the combination of BCI and ultrasound.

Investor interest and the global market potential for new BCI technologies are immense, and expectations within the medical community are equally high.

Worldwide, around 50 million people suffer from quadriplegia. Many more millions suffer from diseases like Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or similar neurodegenerative diseases. BCI "is literally the embodiement of AI for Good", said the co-founder of the "Inclusive Brains", professor Olivier Qullier.

Chinese neuroscientists have been very active in this field for some time. On December 15, 2025, the startup NeuroXess achieved a milestone with China's first battery-integrated BCI implant, the news portal Yicai reported.

Just one day after receiving surgery the 28-year old patient in question, a paraplegic unable to move below the shoulders due to spinal cord injuries, was able to use his brain waves to control a cursor on his computer, a Chinese medical journal reported. He quickly learned to operate a wheelchair and a robotic arm as well.

This particular operation was performed at Shanghai's Huashan Hospital, one of China's top neurological clinics, which performs approximately 20,000 neurosurgical procedures every year.

Nearby, within walking distance of the hospital, neurologists, computer scientists, and entrepreneurs are moving into a new “BCI industrial park.” Gestala also moved in.