In June 2026, New York-based neuro-AI startup Flourish unveiled its technological roadmap and funding strategy after nearly two years of stealth operations. Despite having no products launched, zero revenue, no published papers, and no proven track record, Flourish successfully raised $500 million with a post-money valuation of $2.5 billion, thanks to its technical vision of reverse-engineering the human brain's computational logic. Investors include Jeff Bezos personally and renowned firms like Google Ventures. Founded by former Amazon executive Rob Williams and Thomas Reardon—who previously led Internet Explorer's development before pivoting to neuroscience—Flourish initially used a two-page "reverse work method"-generated future press release as its business plan. The company aims to address current AI challenges in energy efficiency and continuous learning by developing Cortex AI, a synthetic intelligence system aligned with human brain capabilities. Unlike mainstream brain-computer interfaces that seek to connect with the brain, Flourish's approach involves mapping the complete neural connections of cortical columns to distill bio-inspired, gradient-free learning algorithms. The ultimate goal is to compress the power consumption of general intelligence to 20-50 watts. Currently, Flourish is advancing related R&D and chip collaborations. Top-tier capital is betting on this project despite skipping traditional validation metrics because the current trend of scaling large models through computational power has hit bottlenecks. The team has demonstrated the execution capability to translate cutting-edge scientific research into practical applications. If successful, this technology could reshape the entire AI industry. However, the approach faces significant uncertainties: brain-inspired research has long struggled to achieve industrial breakthroughs, with project development expected to span 5-10 years amid fierce industry competition. This represents a high-risk, long-term scientific marathon.