Elon Musk's Boring Co. turns to Middle East for expansion in reaching $23 billion valuation

Elon Musk's tunneling venture, The Boring Company, said it has raised $3 billion in a financing round led by the United Arab Emirates, valuing the company at $23 billion as it shifts focus to ambitious Middle East projects. The company plans to build more than 150 kilometers (93 miles) of tunnels in the UAE, including the previously announced Dubai Loop, while continuing to expand operations in the United States.

"We aim to 'revolutionize transportation' by creating underground loops with stations where passengers can board and exit," the company said in a post announcing the fundraising and outlining its strategic growth.

Deal participants and existing backers

• Round size: $3 billion
• Valuation: $23 billion
• Lead investor: United Arab Emirates
• Other investors named: Valor Equity Partners, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Temasek and Baron Capital

The Boring Company, created inside SpaceX in 2017 and spun out in 2018, has so far one public-facing loop in Las Vegas: the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) Loop, which moves passengers in Tesla vehicles between the convention center and casino resorts. The firm also secured a 20-mile project in Nashville, Tennessee — the Music City Loop — to ferry passengers between downtown and the airport, and continued excavation there with its Prufrock tunnel-boring machines digging into the city's limestone geology.

"Over the past two years, The Boring Company has grown from a single operating Loop system to a multi-city tunneling program, pairing faster machine design with the first hard-rock project, the first international construction contract, and a substantial expansion of Vegas Loop," the company wrote in the fundraising announcement. Following the funding update, Elon Musk posted on X, "Congrats Boring Company team!"

Operational context and controversies

• Only live public loop today: LVCC Loop in Las Vegas
• Nashville project: 20 miles (Music City Loop); mixed local sentiment reported by a Vanderbilt University survey
• Planned UAE build: over 150 kilometers, including the Dubai Loop
• Past cancelled projects: Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C.

The company has faced pushback and regulatory scrutiny. Environmental and safety concerns have followed some of its projects: the firm accumulated hundreds of environmental violations in Las Vegas and recorded workplace safety and environmental violations in Texas, according to reporting cited by the company announcement's background coverage. A 2024 contest offering a "free" one-mile tunnel also drew headlines when the Baltimore Ravens declined the prize after initial meetings.

Commercial ties with Tesla add to The Boring Company's ecosystem play: Tesla used its vehicles on Boring Co. shuttles, and Tesla reportedly paid about $1 million in 2025 for a "Cybertunnel" beneath its Austin Gigafactory to connect assembly to a loading lot. In Nevada, The Boring Company recently won approval from the Nevada System of Higher Education to build a station at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and it is pursuing extensions of the Vegas Loop to the airport and Allegiant Stadium.

With the fresh $3 billion war chest and a UAE-led push into international hard-rock tunneling, The Boring Company aims to move from a single operating loop toward a multi-city, multinational footprint — even as local opposition, environmental histories and past project cancellations underscore the challenges ahead.