Topline
Elon Musk’s The Boring Company announced on Wednesday it has raised $675 million in Series C funding to scale its underground Loop projects and develop a next generation tunneling machine, taking it one step closer to its ultimate goal of defeating “soul-destroying traffic” with a large network of underground tunnels.
Elon Musk leads the Boring Company, which just raised $675 million in Series C funding.
Key Facts
The Boring Company said the Series C round, led by Vy Capital and Sequoia Capital, values the firm at $5.675 billion.
The infusion of funds will be used to “significantly increase hiring” to build and scale its Loop projects, high-speed transportation tunnels built underground.
Boring will also use the proceeds for research and development, including developing the next line of its Prufrock tunneling machines, designed to excavate massive infrastructure projects “in a matter of weeks instead of years,” at a “fraction of the cost” and are capable of operating remotely and autonomously.
Musk, who is also the founder and leader of Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink, took to Twitter to encourage people to work at The Boring Company and help it “solve traffic, which plagues every major city on Earth.”
Key Background
Boring’s ultimate mission is to “defeat traffic,” according to Musk. To do this—what Musk terms the “ultimate boss battle”—you place transportation infrastructure underground in loops, which the company says also frees up valuable real estate for other uses, alleviates congestion and makes travel more efficient. Musk’s long-term vision for Boring are projects called Hyperloops, a series of high-speed pods shuttling passengers between cities in evacuated underground tunnels. The increased tunneling capacity of the next generation machines Boring is developing could help connect local Loops underneath cities and make this Hyperloop a reality, the company said. Boring’s projects are a long way from Musk’s vision, however, and the company’s first major project is a 29-mile tunnel network connecting 51 stations under Las Vegas, the largest subsurface transportation project in the U.S.
Big Number
$262.9 billion. That’s Elon Musk’s current net worth, according to Forbes, making him the richest person in the world.
Further Reading
Musk’s Twitter Takeover: A Small Part In A Usually Boring Meeting Could Sway Everything (Forbes)
A Tesla Cofounder’s New Focus: Rock-Tunneling Robots To Protect The Grid (Forbes)
Elon Musk’s Boring Company gets green light for Las Vegas tunnel system (Verge)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/04/21/elon-musks-boring-company-raises-675-million-to-scale-traffic-fighting-underground-loop-projects/