A new round of funding in Series C has allotted Elon Musk's The Boring Company a total of $675 million to broaden its efforts in traffic-limiting tunnels under Las Vegas. The additional funds would thus give The Boring Company a $5.675 billion valuation according to its announcement posted on Wednesday, Apr. 21st.
This extra cash gives the company enhanced efforts in tackling its continued mission of diminishing "soul-destroying traffic" with an underground network of tunnels it calls the Loop, or Vegas Loop. Made from supposed "next-generation" Prufrock tunnel-boring machines (TBMs), Boring Company's two currently operational tunnels, which extend to about a 0.8-mile length below the Las Vegas Convention Center, are evidence enough in the potential of such a system in high-traffic density areas, main among them being Los Angeles and Chicago.
Although the Boring Company does currently have a loop system in California, specifically a 1.1-mile-long test tube system beneath Hawthorne, Chicago hasn't exactly been all too easy. Various political stopgaps have slowed and otherwise deteriorated any potential efforts to build such a high-speed tunnel. In Vegas, however, Musk's company seems all the more welcome as a new 29-mile system was green-lit by officials in October of last year.
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These high-speed tunnels thus far utilize Musk's Tesla vehicles as a pseudo taxi service in the snaking underground system with specific stops, much akin to a train line. The first proposal of the brand saw 150mph transportation concepts with futuristic pods and autonomous sleds as the main driving component. While this initial hyperloop concept as yet does not exist, various technological developers are still working towards making it a reality, with one firm aiming for a whopping 760mph transport capsule.
For now, however, Musk's dream of alleviating the woes of traffic rests solely in the developmental efforts behind the company's drilling machines, the aforementioned TBMs, which the company is expanding upon further via its new cash flow.
"Unlike traditional TBMs which require upwards of a dozen or more people to operate, Prufrock is designed to be capable of operating completely remotely and autonomously via computerized systems and requires zero people in the tunnel to operate. The current iteration of Prufrock, called Prufrock-2, is designed to mine at up to 1 mile/week, meaning the length of the Las Vegas strip (approximately 4 miles) can be completed in a month," wrote The Boring Company.
Alongside additional machines and, hopefully, additional contracts with states across the US, The Boring Company will likewise "significantly increase hiring across engineering, operations, and production" so as to enhance its internal R&D proponents and broaden its efforts in Vegas. Although a simple underground taxi service right now, one that is relatively prone to its own traffic made all the more poignant amid CES 2022, investors are more so looking at the long-term potential in an ever-broadening customer base and subsequently enlarged revenue streams.
To that end, the Boring Company must only look to expand beyond Vegas and ensure the viability of its steadfast tunnel boring technology.
