Four members of the United States House of Representatives alleged on Wednesday that Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk issued false statements in a September post on X regarding the "gruesome" deaths of 12 macaque monkeys that were surgically fitted with implants developed by his brain-chip startup Neuralink, WIRED reported.
US lawmakers Earl Blumenauer, Barbara Lee, James McGovern, and Tony Cárdenas have urged Gary Gensler, head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to initiate a probe into whether Musk committed securities fraud by glossing over the lethal aspects of Neuralink’s tests, which they claim is a potential violation of an SEC rule designed to shield investors from material omissions and misstatements linked with the purchase or sale of a security.
Musk claimed in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that no animal test subjects died as "a result of a Neuralink implant,” adding that the company strove early on to "minimize risk to healthy monkeys," choosing only those who were "close to death already."
WIRED wrote that in its investigation this year it shed serious doubt on Musk's animal welfare claims, finding that several macaque monkeys who’d been experimented upon suffered greatly before their deaths, anguish that was prolonged in some cases to help Neuralink gather data following its surgeries.
"The idea that these were terminal monkeys is ridiculous," a former Neuralink employee told WIRED.
"We had these monkeys for a year or so before any surgery was performed."
The US lawmakers’ letter to the SEC claims the animals’ deaths are directly related to the safety and marketability of Neuralink’s brain-computer interface.
Neither Musk nor Neuralink responded this week to inquiries concerning Musk's claims, WIRED added.
Bloomberg reported earlier this month that thousands of people claimed to have expressed interest in obtaining an implant from Neuralink, a device that Musk once famously described as a "Fitbit in your skull."
The procedure will involve removing a coin-sized piece of the subject’s cranium and allowing a proprietary robot to weave superthin wires into their brain.
Neuralink raised more than $280 million during a recent funding round this year that would value the company at about $5 billion, according to regulatory filings.
Contact Sean at sean@proactiveinvestors.com