Elon Musk

Its brain signals were sent wirelessly via an implanted device.

The hope is that the interface could eventually allow people with neurological conditions to control phones or computers remotely.

One expert said the fact no wires were used represented "significant progress", but more data was needed.

The macaque monkey, named Pager, was first taught to play the video game with a joystick, and was rewarded with a fruit smoothie.

During this process, the Neuralink device recorded the information about which neurons were firing to control which movements.

The Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur was pushed into the top slot after Tesla's share price increased on Thursday.

He takes the top spot from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who had held it since 2017.

Musk's electric car company Tesla has surged in value this year, and hit a market value of $700bn (NZ$964bn) for the first time on Wednesday.

That makes the car company worth more than Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, GM and Ford combined.

Musk reacted to the news in signature style, replying to a Twitter user sharing the news with the remark "how strange".

The entrepreneur made the pledge as he announced an improved microchip for its driverless vehicles.

Mr Musk told investors he expected regulators to approve ride-hailing in some areas for autonomous vehicles.

He added: "I feel very confident in predicting autonomous robotaxis next year."

Mr Musk said he expected the scheme to operate on a model similar to that of Uber or Airbnb.

The company unveiled computer hardware for what it said was "full self-driving" capabilities in the form of the new microchip.

During a speech at a TED Talks conference, Musk -- the Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX CEO -- unveiled what he hopes to accomplish with his latest venture, The Boring Company.

I’ve written at length about President Trump’s relationship with the technology heartland.

On the one side, you have the likes of Paypal founder and major investor Peter Thiel, who is now very much part of Trump’s inner circle.

On the other, you have tech bigwigs like Apple’s Tim Cook and Alphabet’s Larry Page, who were cooperative but mostly quiet when honouring the then President-Elect’s invite to meet him at Trump Tower last year.