Merge Labs, Butterfly Network Partner on Ultrasound-Based BCIs

Butterfly Network and Merge Labs began a multi-year licensing deal through Butterfly Embedded. It gives Merge access to Butterfly’s Poseidon family of Ultrasound-on-Chip technology to develop ultrasound-based brain-computer interfaces (BCI).

The announcement comes ahead of Butterfly’s inaugural BCI Innovation Summit tomorrow, which brings together leaders in BCI research, investment, innovation, and industry.

Merge Labs launched in January 2026 with a mission to integrate biological and artificial intelligence. Founded by researchers and technology entrepreneurs Tyson Aflalo, Sam Altman, Alex Blania, Sandro Herbig, Sumner Norman, and Mikhail Shapiro, the company raised $252 million in seed funding from investors including OpenAI, Bain Capital, Interface Fund, Fifty Years, and Gabe Newell.

The multi-year agreement includes upfront and milestone payments, hardware purchase commitments, technology access fees, and royalties on future sales. Butterfly will be Merge’s exclusive CMOS-MEMS chip-based ultrasound partner, supporting development of custom neural interface technologies. Butterfly retains the right to license its technology to other companies in the field.

In June, Butterfly Embedded participant Aleph Neuro unveiled high-resolution brain imaging using Butterfly Network technology. The company said it captured the highest-resolution 3D images of the human brain taken from outside the skull.

Comments from Butterfly and Merge

Joseph DeVivo, chairman, president, and CEO, Butterfly Network: “We’re pleased to partner with Merge Labs and proud they’ve selected Butterfly as their exclusive platform for research and development. We’re committed to supporting their team as they advance this work from research toward commercialization. BCI is one of the most exciting and rapidly evolving areas of innovation today, with ultrasound emerging as an increasingly important modality. We’re excited about the role Butterfly can play in helping move the field forward.”

Tyson Aflalo, co-founder, Merge Labs: “We believe ultrasound has tremendous potential to enable a new generation of neural interfaces. Our goal is to take the fastest and safest path to building the best technology possible, while enabling valuable R&D on downstream applications along the way. Butterfly has built a semiconductor-based ultrasound platform with the performance, flexibility, and commitment to innovation that can help us move quickly toward that goal.”