This Startup Fused Human Brain Cells with Silicon Chips | E2295

June 1, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

This Startup Fused Human Brain Cells with Silicon Chips

Cortical Labs CEO Hon Weng Chong (known as "Han") returned to This Week in Startups to update Alex on the company's progress since their first conversation in 2025. The company has moved from selling individual CL1 units — the world's first fully contained biological computer fusing human neurons with silicon chips — to building what they're calling "the world's first biological data center" in Melbourne, with a second facility planned in Singapore.

The CL1: A Biological Computer in a Server Rack

The CL1 is a three-unit rack-mountable system that looks like "a very long space age toaster." Inside, a neural chamber houses up to one to two million human neurons grown from stem cells (Han is careful to note: "we're not killing people here to steal their brains"). The system includes life support components Han describes in biological terms: pumps like a heart, feeding and waste reservoirs like a stomach and bladder, filtration units like kidneys, and a gas mixer like lungs. The whole thing runs at 37 degrees Celsius and uses only about 30 watts of power per unit.

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What you'll learn

1 (00:04) **Opening & Biological Data Center** - Han returns to discuss Cortical Labs' progress since the CL1 launch; the world's first biological data center is now operational in Melbourne.
2 (02:11) **CL1 Product Performance & Anatomy** - The first 30 units sold out (~$1M); Han is hand-delivering units to US institutions (Johns Hopkins, Mass General, UCSF, Dartmouth).
3 (07:35) **Insect-Scale Intelligence & Generalization** - The 200,000-neuron system is roughly comparable to a cockroach or fly in complexity.
4 (11:00) **Reinforcement Learning Breakthrough** - Unpublished research shows biological neurons are 5,000x more sample-efficient than GPU-based RL systems.
5 (12:41) **Biological Data Center Economics** - The Singapore facility (Day One data center) will host 1,000 CL1s plus an on-site lab for growing neurons.
6 (16:00) **Algorithm vs. Hardware Bottleneck** - Current capacity is not saturated; the main bottleneck is the algorithm for encoding digital information into analog biological systems.
7 (19:08) **Ethical Concerns & Vatican Engagement** - The Vatican has engaged with Cortical Labs' CSO and agreed that the work is ethically acceptable.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

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Today’s show:

Cortical Labs is the world’s first company selling biological computers. Their CL1 fuses lab-grown human neurons (derived from stem cells, not actual folks) with silicon hardware to create Synthetic Biological Intelligence (SBI).

Founder Dr. Hon Weng Chong walks us through how the system works and why neurons are more efficient than GPUs at reinforcement learning. (Also… is this computer alive?)

PLUS Pyka co-founder and CEO Michael Norcia explains the various uses for his autonomous aircraft, from crop-spraying drones in Brazil to a a hybrid-electric defense UAV for the military.

Guests:

Cortical Labs: ****https://corticallabs.com/

Dr. Hon Weng Chong on X: https://x.com/dr1337

Pyka: https://www.flypyka.com/

Pyka on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flypyka/?hl=en

Further Reading:

2022 Pong paper in Neuron: https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(22)00806-6

2017 Paper: “Attention is All You Need”; https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762

The “Barista Test” for Artificial Intelligence: Chris Rourk: https://medium.com/predict/the-turing-test-is-so-last-century-the-barista-test-for-artificial-general-intelligence-faf91034fa8c

Notable Links:

Playing “DOOM” on CL1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRV8fSw6HaE

DayOne Data Center: https://dayonedc.com/