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Loreben Tuquero
By Loreben Tuquero April 1, 2025

Elon Musk didn’t fund a Neuralink implant procedure for a 7-year-old named ‘Lily Thompson’

If Your Time is short

  • Billionaire businessman Elon Musk in 2016 co-founded Neuralink Corp., a technology company that creates implantable computer chips for the human brain.

  • On its website, Neuralink has named three Neuralink chip recipients, but none were a 7-year-old named Lily Thompson.

  • An expert told PolitiFact the image of Musk at a girl’s bedside was likely generated using artificial intelligence.

A Facebook user shared a heartwarming story about billionaire businessman and Neuralink Corp. co-founder Elon Musk paying for a 7-year-old girl’s life-changing medical procedure.

The post described a child named Lily Thompson who was diagnosed with a "rare neurological disorder that left her unable to walk, speak, or even breathe without assistance." After Musk learned of her condition, the post said, he "funded an experimental procedure at a top California hospital, implanting a Neuralink chip to repair damaged neural connections."

"Lily’s family received an unexpected lifeline when Musk personally pledged to cover every penny of her care, including a pioneering surgery that could restore her chance at a normal childhood," the March 27 Facebook post read.

The post featured an image of Musk, who is an adviser to President Donald Trump, beside a child’s hospital bed as the child gazed away from the camera, a tangle of tubes and devices attached to her head and chest. It was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

(Screenshot from Facebook)

But no evidence supports this narrative. PolitiFact found no credible news reports showing Thompson is a real person who received Musk’s assistance.

Neuralink, which Musk helped launch in 2016, produces a chip designed to be implanted in a human brain to help people with mobility issues control computers or mobile devices with their thoughts. PolitiFact contacted Neuralink but received no reply.

Featured Fact-check

The image in the Facebook post appears to have been generated using artificial intelligence. Rijul Gupta, CEO of deepfake detection company Deep Media, told PolitiFact its deepfake detection system said the image "contains evidence of generative AI," which means it has a high probability of being AI-generated.

"The lack of details on some of the text on the sick girl's medical equipment, and the perspective inconsistencies in the background details on the wall are evidence which support this conclusion," Gupta said in an email.

Musk has previously posted on X about Neuralink recipients. In January, he said there were three patients with a Neuralink implant. The Neuralink blog named them as "Noland, Alex and Brad." There was no mention of a girl named Lily Thompson. News reports identified one of the recipients as 30-year-old Noland Arbaugh; the other two recipients have not been publicly identified.

Neuralink’s clinical trial study overview said people should be 22 to 75 to be eligible to receive the chip. Bloomberg reported that Neuralink estimates each implant surgery costs the company about $10,500, and it charges insurers about $40,000.

"All three individuals are unable to move their arms and legs — Noland and Alex due to spinal cord injury (SCI) and Brad due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)," read a Feb. 5 Neuralink statement. "They each volunteered to participate in Neuralink’s PRIME Study, a clinical trial to demonstrate that the Link (the Neuralink implant) is safe and useful in the daily lives of people living with paralysis."

Searching for the Facebook post’s caption text led us to a March 23 article published on News.Citestesitu.Com, which provides no information about its owner or authors. According to the article, Musk learned of Thompson on March 22; the article’s publication date suggests the surgery took place within a day, which is implausible.

We rate the claim that Musk funded a Neuralink implant for a girl with a rare neurological disorder False.

Our Sources

Email exchange with Rijul Gupta, CEO of Deep Media, March 31, 2025

Facebook post, March 27, 2025

The Washington Post, Musk’s Neuralink implants brain chip in its first human subject, Jan. 30, 2024

Neuralink, Join the Patient Registry, accessed April 1, 2025

News.Citestesitu.Com, A Little Girl’s Miracle: Elon Musk Funds Surgery and Neuralink Chip to Save a Life, March 23, 2025 (archived)

X post by Elon Musk, Jan. 29, 2024

X post by Elon Musk, Aug. 21, 2024

The Associated Press, Elon Musk says a third patient got a Neuralink brain implant. The work is part of a booming field, Jan. 13, 2025

X Live, Stagwell's CEO Mark Penn interview with Elon Musk, Jan. 8, 2025

The New York Times, Despite Setback, Neuralink’s First Brain-Implant Patient Stays Upbeat, May 22, 2024

ClinicalTrials.gov, Precise Robotically IMplanted Brain-Computer InterfacE (PRIME), accessed April 1, 2025

Neuralink, A Year of Telepathy, Feb. 5, 2025

Bloomberg, Elon Musk’s Brain Implant Startup Is Ready to Start Surgery, Nov. 7, 2023

X searches for #MuskSaves and #NeuralinkMiracle, March 31, 2025

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Elon Musk didn’t fund a Neuralink implant procedure for a 7-year-old named ‘Lily Thompson’

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