Elon Musk’s tunneling venture, The Boring Company, has raised $3 billion in fresh capital to expand its underground transport network across the UAE, pushing the firm’s valuation to $23 billion. Boring Company UAE Tunnel Network
The amount raised from the Series D funding will be used to construct more than 150 kilometres of tunnels nationwide, as the company expands beyond its current Dubai Loop project.
The firm says the investment will accelerate its UAE partnership, moving it from proof-of-concept to a major implementation phase. UAE-based investors led the deal, with Dubai-based Shamal Holding among those backing the deal, not disclosing its stake in the project.
The deal comes in addition to the contract the company has been awarded in its Dubai Loop, which will enable the emirate to become only the second city to adopt its tunnel-based transport system, following examples in California.
Other participants in the funding round include Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Temasek, Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Human Capital and Baron Capital, reflecting continued investor appetite for Musk-backed ventures despite the company’s slower-than-promised progress over the past decade.
Musk originally pitched Boring Company’s technology as a foundation for ultra-fast hyperloop travel, a vision that has yet to materialise at scale.
The company points to its Las Vegas Loop, which has carried more than four million passengers since 2021, as proof its tunnel system works commercially. It has also broken ground on a project in Nashville, Tennessee, this year, alongside its Dubai commitments.
Analysts note the funding round underscores investors’ continued confidence in Musk’s track record of eventually commercialising ambitious technology, pointing to Tesla and SpaceX as precedents — the latter having completed a record-breaking IPO in June.
For the UAE, the deal reinforces Dubai’s push to diversify urban mobility beyond roads and rail, following recent progress on the Dubai Loop and the city’s Blue Line metro extension, as part of a broader strategy to ease congestion in one of the region’s fastest-growing urban centres. Alwasat News
