Jeff Bezos backs Flourish's $500 million hunt for the brain's 'core algorithm'
The two-year-old company, valued at $2.5 billion, uses connectomics to try to reverse-engineer the brain and build far more efficient AI.
Flourish, a two-year-old start-up co-founded by Thomas Reardon (who previously founded CTRL-labs, the company behind Meta’s EMG wristband) and Rob Williams, has raised $500 million at a $2.5 billion valuation. Backers include Jeff Bezos, reported to have invested about $100 million, Lux Capital, GV and Catalio Capital. Flourish uses connectomics, detailed maps of how neurons are wired, to search for the brain’s “core algorithm” and recreate it in software and chips.
The pitch is efficiency: a human brain runs on about 20 watts, far less than a single AI chip. It is one of the largest bets yet on neuroscience-inspired AI.
Learn more: How the brain produces signals · Neuron