The Boring Company: $3 Billion for Unproven Tech

The company quickly captured public attention through viral marketing tactics.

A notable marketing stunt in 2018 involved selling branded flamethrowers, which garnered significant media coverage and helped popularize the company's name and goals.

Most of this capital came from investors in the United Arab Emirates.

This significant investment follows earlier attempts by the company to pitch investors for a $3 billion round, indicating a renewed interest in its projects despite prior lack of major developments.

The proposed system would transport cars on electric sleds at speeds exceeding 120 mph, utilizing autonomous Teslas or private vehicles, and connecting the tunnels to surface roads via elevator systems.

Experts argue that the CGI grid pattern presented by Musk for his proposed 25-tunnel network is impractical and would not function. Building tunnels in such close proximity creates immense geological stress and pressure on the surrounding earth and existing structures, posing significant engineering challenges.

A dense grid of tunnels necessitates extensive infrastructure for ramps, ventilation, and emergency exits, which are logistically difficult to implement. The complex, overlapping ramp system required for the network further complicates the engineering, making the proposed design highly problematic.

Tunneling projects are known for their exceptionally high costs, making them economically viable primarily in densely populated urban areas where the expense can be justified by high passenger volumes. The Boring Company's proposed 25-tunnel system for a city is notably expensive.

To offset the notorious expense of tunneling, Elon Musk famously suggested converting the excavated dirt into bricks for sale, claiming they would be significantly more affordable than traditional options. Critics argue this model is far more expensive than existing subway lines that handle similar volumes of passengers.

Elon Musk announced plans to sell bricks made from tunnel dirt at 10 cents each, significantly undercutting the 25-cent price of Home Depot bricks, and implying a revolutionary cost-saving measure for the company's tunneling operations.

However, the product in question is compressed earth blocks, which are less durable and valuable than traditional fired clay bricks. The cost of production for these blocks, including labor, equipment, and transportation, would likely negate any perceived benefit of using 'free' excavated dirt. After eight years since the announcement, there is no evidence that The Boring Company has sold a single brick.

In 2018, The Boring Company announced a $1 billion project to connect downtown Chicago to O'Hare Airport, with Elon Musk claiming it would be completed within three years. Despite these promises, construction on the project never commenced.

Urban tunneling requires intricate engineering considerations such as utility mapping, adequate ventilation systems, and strict fire safety compliance. Musk's approach was characterized as naive, demonstrating a lack of understanding of the administrative and technical complexities inherent in large-scale infrastructure projects in a city like Chicago.

Furthermore, the project was deemed economically unviable, largely because of the high cost of land acquisition in New York City and the proposed system's low vehicle capacity.

The actual speeds are capped at 40 mph, significantly below the initial promise of 125 mph, and the system lacks the proposed integration with surface roads via elevators.

When the system was made available to the public in 2021, it functioned as a basic underground ride-hailing service rather than the revolutionary high-speed transit network advertised. This reality fell far short of the original vision of efficient urban transportation.

Despite plans announced in 2021 for expansion throughout Las Vegas, progress has been notably slow, indicating challenges in scaling the system beyond its limited current scope.

In reality, no such direct tunnel currently exists.

The "active stations" at terminals 1 and 2 are merely ride-hailing pickup points where vehicles collect passengers on surface streets. These vehicles then travel on surface roads before entering the limited tunnel segment for the final approach to the convention center. Efforts to build a direct tunnel have faced multiple delays, perpetuating the illusion rather than delivering a complete connection.

In 2017, to begin this exploration, the company acquired an old Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) from a Chicago graveyard.

This initial acquisition allowed them to deconstruct the machine and learn the intricacies of the tunneling process firsthand. The primary goal was to identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies in conventional tunneling to develop novel approaches that would dramatically reduce both time and cost, thereby making subterranean networks more viable.

However, the narrator argues that Davis uses an artificially low baseline for traditional tunneling, thereby exaggerating the perceived speed increase of their technology.

Developing this continuous mining process took roughly a year and a half to two years to implement safely and with redundancy, according to Davis. The company invested significant effort into ensuring the process worked effectively in real-world conditions.

Despite claims of innovation, continuous tunneling is not unique to The Boring Company. Manufacturers like Herrenknecht have had similar capabilities for years, using advanced computer-controlled systems to achieve continuous boring in various soil conditions, suggesting that The Boring Company's 'innovation' might be a reinvention rather than a true breakthrough.

Tunnel boring machines (TBMs) operate differently depending on the geological conditions. In hard rock, the machine can brace against the existing tunnel walls to push itself forward while simultaneously installing concrete lining segments behind it, utilizing the stable rock for leverage.

Conversely, in soft ground, the walls are unstable and would collapse or squish under pressure. Therefore, the TBM must push off the newly installed concrete lining to advance. Laying this lining while simultaneously using it as a push-off point creates a complex technical challenge, akin to building a floor while standing on it, which requires precise engineering to manage.

The system utilizes advanced algorithms to adjust individual thrust cylinders, ensuring the machine stays precisely on course as the lining is installed. Herrenknecht's TBMs have successfully completed 10-meter-wide railway tunnels in England, which are three times wider than The Boring Company's Prufrock tunnels, demonstrating superior capacity and proven large-scale application.

However, a comparative analysis challenges these assertions.

Herrenknecht's TBMs, for example, have bored 10-meter wide tunnels at a rate of 16 meters per day. In contrast, The Boring Company's operations in Las Vegas only achieved a rate of 7.5 meters per day for tunnels that were merely one-third the diameter, demonstrating a significant performance gap. The difficulty and time required for tunneling increase substantially with greater tunnel diameter, making Herrenknecht's achievement even more impressive by comparison.

This investment, alongside the $3 billion raised from the UAE government on September 10, 2026, highlights a trend of high-stakes speculative funding.

The UAE's investment is particularly notable given their previous loss of $165 million on Virgin Hyperloop, another Musk-linked transit concept that failed to generate revenue and was ultimately shut down. The new agreement with the UAE government requires The Boring Company to build 93 miles of tunnels in the region, placing significant expectations on the unproven technology.

This move drew criticism due to Sequoia's prior controversial promotion of crypto scammer Sam Bankman-Fried.

During this period, established industry competitors like Herrenknecht were simultaneously receiving awards for their superior soft-soil Tunnel Boring Machine technology, underscoring the discrepancy between The Boring Company's claims and actual industry advancements. The investment raises questions about the due diligence and motivations behind such significant financial backing for a company with unproven and often criticized technology.

This substantial capital infusion comes with a significant commitment.

The investment requires The Boring Company to establish operations and construct 93 miles of tunnels within the UAE. This expansion marks a major international venture for the company, placing it in a region with ambitious infrastructure goals.

However, the narrator notes that the UAE has a historically poor track record regarding tunnel-related infrastructure investments. This context raises skepticism about the long-term success of this new partnership, particularly in light of The Boring Company's past performance and unfulfilled promises.