Capital Injection, Technology Breakthrough: Brain-Computer Interface Enters Window for Industrialization Landing

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 20 — The China Securities Journal published an article on the 20th titled “Capital Boosts, Technology Breakthroughs: Brain-Computer Interface Enters Industry Commercialization Window.” The article states that recently, positive news related to brain-computer interface companies has been coming rapidly. Industry insiders believe that with the combined effects of policy support, technological breakthroughs, and increased capital investment, this sector will accelerate from the research and development stage to commercialization. Upstream and downstream industry chain companies are simultaneously entering a golden window for product validation and market expansion, marking a new stage of quality improvement and speed-up in industry development.

(Stock photo. Xinhua News Agency)

Capital Inflows Fuel Sector Growth

Data shows that by 2025, the domestic brain-computer interface field will have completed 24 financing events throughout the year, with a total funding exceeding 5 billion yuan, a explosive increase from 200 million yuan in 2024, reaching a recent high.

Since 2026, the sector has seen several large-scale financings, igniting market enthusiasm. Leading companies have reported successful fundraising, with Jiantou Medical recently completing a strategic financing of 500 million yuan, led by Alibaba and co-invested by China Investment Corporation Chuanghe; Tencent, Qiming Venture Partners, Eli Lilly Asia Fund, and Shanghai Guotou Pioneer have also continued to follow up. Over the past year, Jiantou Medical has raised more than 1.1 billion yuan, making it the first company in this field backed by Alibaba and Tencent.

A person in charge of Jiantou Medical stated that the company continues to gain capital recognition mainly due to breakthroughs in both technology and clinical applications. Technologically, the company’s self-developed “super flexible electrode,” about 1/100th the diameter of a human hair, has overcome implantation damage issues, ensuring safety; clinically, the company is steadily advancing clinical trials, and this implementation capability has gained market recognition for the company’s commercial potential and value.

Gatoma Technology announced the completion of a 150 million yuan angel round of financing, led jointly by Guosheng Capital and Daotong Investment, with participation from well-known investment institutions and companies such as Qingsong Capital, Gobi Ventures, Fourier, Liepin, and Yunshi Capital. Strong Brain Technology completed 2 billion yuan in financing in January, with funds to be fully used to accelerate core R&D of brain-computer interfaces, push engineering breakthroughs, scale up products, and achieve mass production.

He Li, General Manager of Zhizhi Investment, told China Securities Journal that the core logic of capital returning to the brain-computer interface industry has shifted from sci-fi imagination to engineering realization. With breakthroughs in large model encoding and decoding capabilities, brain-computer interfaces are no longer just signal simulations in laboratories but have evolved into hard technology industries capable of real-time interaction. Capital now scrutinizes not only the number of papers and founder prestige but also the company’s engineering mass production ability, clinical certification certainty, and long-term biocompatibility data. This shift indicates that the industry has shed concept bubbles and entered a pragmatic development stage focused on medical device compliance and commercial closed-loop.

Multiple Technological Breakthroughs

Technological breakthroughs are the core driving force of industry development. Currently, domestic brain-computer interfaces are advancing through multiple routes—invasive, semi-invasive, and non-invasive—each with its focus, jointly accelerating industry deployment. Among them, medical rehabilitation scenarios have become the main battlefield for technology transformation and the core direction for early commercialization breakthroughs.

Recently, the National Medical Products Administration approved the registration application for Borum Medical Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.'s implantable brain-computer interface hand movement compensation system (NEO), achieving the world’s first launch of a brain-computer interface medical device, marking the entry of the first invasive brain-computer interface medical device into clinical application.

Century Securities believes that as a multidisciplinary future industry, domestic clinical advancement in brain-computer interfaces has already gained a first-mover advantage. The approved device will gradually enter hospitals to accumulate real-world data, and the underlying hardware and software platforms verified for safety are expected to be iteratively optimized and expanded for new indications.

According to China Securities Journal, Xinzhida learned that Beijing Brain Institute, in collaboration with a company, developed “Beiniao No.1,” the world’s first flexible high-throughput semi-invasive wireless fully implantable brain system. It has completed 7 human implantations at Peking University First Hospital, Xuanwu Hospital, and Beijing Tiantan Hospital, with the system operating safely for over 44,000 hours, covering patients with spinal cord injuries, stroke paralysis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The first spinal cord injury patient has been implanted for over a year, able to control robotic arms and rehabilitation devices, with significant improvements in upper limb strength and movement scores, gradually achieving self-recovery; a patient with ALS successfully completed Chinese speech decoding, enabling daily short sentence communication; a paraplegic patient used brain-controlled spinal cord stimulation and exoskeletons to stand and walk with crutches. Currently, “Beiniao No.1” has initiated registration clinical trials, taking a key step toward market-ready medical devices.

Simultaneously, “Beiniao No.2” has completed the development of a 512-channel wireless fully implantable product and entered large animal trials, with clinical validation expected to start within the year.

Jiantou Medical revealed that by early 2026, relying on its independently developed surgical robot, the company successfully completed the clinical implantation of a proposed 256-channel wireless high-throughput invasive brain-computer interface system (WRS02), with effective validation of brain-controlled interaction functions. The company plans to conduct large-scale multi-center registration clinical trials in mid-2026, aiming to enroll and implant about 40 patients within the year.

Industry Development Enters a New Stage

Industry insiders believe that the “14th Five-Year Plan” outlines brain-computer interfaces as one of the future industries for forward-looking layout. Multiple policies have established a support system from top-level design to implementation, covering key areas such as technological innovation, scene application, and medical insurance reimbursement, accelerating standardization and clinical translation.

Dongwu Securities believes that policy efforts from R&D subsidies to industry support have addressed bottlenecks across the entire process—from research breakthroughs, clinical validation, compliance registration, to commercialization—effectively safeguarding industry development.

He Li stated that in the value distribution of the industry chain, upstream high-throughput flexible electrodes and low-power dedicated chips, due to their high technological barriers, have become high-value targets for institutions. Currently, the most favored route in capital markets is minimally invasive/semi-invasive technology, as it strikes a delicate balance between surgical safety and signal clarity, with the least commercialization resistance. Meanwhile, a dual-driven model with medical-grade endorsement and consumer-level penetration potential is considered the optimal path for rapid cash flow turnaround.

From an investor perspective, He Li said that the biggest challenge for large-scale deployment of brain-computer interface technology lies in reducing surgical thresholds and ensuring long-term stability after implantation. Only when automated surgical robots can perform standardized operations like laser eye surgery and device costs are significantly reduced will performance truly materialize. It is expected that in the next 1-2 years, the industry will see explosive approvals of three types of medical device registration certificates. (End)