Some purchases by bullish investors boosted the valuation in recent months, ahead of Neuralink's May 25Experts have said it could take several years for Neuralink to secure commercial use clearance. Kip Ludwig, former program director for neural engineering at the U.S. National Institutes of Health , said he "optimistically" expected Neuralink to take at least 10 more years to commercialize its brain implant.
Neuralink's valuation jump in secondary trades is in sharp contrast to other startups. About 85% of pre-IPO companies are currently valued in secondary trades at an average discount of 47% to their last funding round, according to data provider Caplight. Many of the recent stock sales have been to relatively small investors, who typically focus more on getting a slice of a company owned by Musk than scrutinizing its valuation. The maximum amount sought for the Neuralink shares marketed for sale at a $7 billion valuation was just $500,000, according to the email seen by Reuters.