The Boring Company
The Boring Company is an American infrastructure, tunnel construction service, and equipment company founded by Elon Musk. TBC was founded as a subsidiary of SpaceX in 2017, and was spun off as a separate corporation in 2018. TBC has completed multiple test tunnels and one tunneling project that is open to the public.
In 2018, TBC completed one test tunnel in Los Angeles County, California. In 2021, TBC completed the Las Vegas Convention Center Loop, a three-station transportation system with of tunnels. As of April 2024, a segment to Resorts World Las Vegas is also open, and tunnels to Encore and Westgate resorts are being finalized. The system is planned to expand to a total of of tunnels.
Many other TBC projects in cities across the United States were announced, but subsequently became inactive or were canceled.
In November 2025 they began to trial self-driving vehicles.
History
Musk announced the idea of the Boring Company in December 2016, and it was officially registered as "TBC – The Boring Company" on January 11, 2017. Musk cited difficulty with Los Angeles traffic, and what he sees as limitations of its two-dimensional transportation network, as his early inspiration for the project. The Boring Company was formed as a SpaceX subsidiary. According to Musk, the company's goal is to enhance tunneling speed enough such that establishing a tunnel network is financially feasible.In early 2018, the Boring Company was spun out from SpaceX and into a separate corporate entity. Early employees came from a variety of different backgrounds, including those from SpaceX. The company completed several tests in Hawthorne, California and showcased a test tunnel on December 18, 2018.
After raising US$113 million from Musk himself, supplemented by TBC merchandise sales during 2018, the Boring Company sold $120 million in stock to venture capital firms in July 2019.
By November 2019, Steve Davis had become company president after leading efforts for Musk since 2016. Davis was one of the earliest hires at SpaceX and has twin master's degrees in particle physics and aerospace engineering, as well as degrees in finance and mechanical engineering. In November 2020, TBC announced hiring for positions in Austin, Texas, and by December 2020 had leased two buildings in a industrial complex northeast of Austin, approximately north of Texas Gigafactory.
On April 20, 2022, the company announced an additional $675 million Series C funding round, valuing the company at approximately $5.675 billion. The round was led by Vy Capital and Sequoia Capital, with participation from Valor Equity Partners, Founders Fund, 8VC, Craft Ventures, and DFJ Growth. In 2022, the company was cited by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for five violations of Texas environmental regulations.
Sometime before April 2023, the company moved their headquarters and engineering facilities to Bastrop, Texas, approximately east of Texas Gigafactory.
Promotion
Merchandise
In 2018, the company began offering 20,000 "flamethrowers" for preordering. The "flamethrower" was a blow torch shaped to look like a gun and is legal in all U.S. states except Maryland. All 20,000 "flamethrowers" were sold in just a few days. After customs officials said that they would not allow imports of any items called "flamethrowers", Musk announced that he would rename them to "Not-A-Flamethrower" since the devices were in fact akin to roofing torches. Musk announced separate sales of a fire extinguisher, which he described as "overpriced... but this one comes with a cool sticker".Not-a-Boring Competition
In 2020, TBC released rules for a student tunnel-boring competition. The first competition was held in Las Vegas in September 2021. Officially named the Not-a-Boring Competition, the challenge was to "quickly and accurately drill a tunnel that was and ".Applications were received from 400 potential participants. A technical design review left 12 teams that were invited to Las Vegas to demonstrate their engineering solution in a September 2021 competition. The winning team was TUM Boring from Technical University of Munich who managed to excavate a bore while meeting the requisite safety requirements. TUM Boring used a conventional pipe jacking method to build the tunnel, but employed a novel revolving pipe storage design to minimize downtime between pipe segments.
A second competition was held in April 2023. New contest criteria required a -long -diameter, this time with a turn radius. Five teams from four countries—the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, and Switzerland—made the finals and journeyed to Texas to compete. TUM Boring again won with a design that reached a maximum velocity of. Swissloop Tunneling finished second overall and won the innovation award.
Machines
The first boring machine used by TBC was Godot, a conventional tunnel boring machine made by Lovat. The next line of machines were called Prufrock. The company claimed that Prufrock 2, could dig up to a mile per week with the goal to dig up to seven miles per day for the next machine. Experts claim Musk appears to be aiming for small diameter tunnels, which save time and money.Process
TBC claims to be redesigning the entire tunnel boring process to reduce cost, accelerate tunnel completion, improve safety, and reduce site impacts.Porpoising
Replace tunnel entry and exit excavations by having the TBM "porpoise" in and out of the ground. The TBM is trucked in and placed at an angle to the ground.. It then bores into the ground. It changes angles as it continues boring, eventually returning to the surface and being loaded onto the truck.In conventional systems, one large excavation is made at the tunnel entrance to allow the TBM to be lowered to the tunnel depth and assembled. A similar excavation is made at the tunnel exit to allow the TBM to be disassembled and lifted out.
Liner truck
TBC moves tunnel lining segments into the tunnel via an all-electric autonomous, wheeled liner truck powered by motors and batteries from Tesla. Conventional systems typically use a diesel rail system, which must be constructed along with the tunnel lining.Continuous tunneling
TBC is working to install ring liners without stopping tunneling. Conventional systems stop every five feet or so to install another segment of the tunnel lining, and to extend the rail line. The goal is to increase tunneling time/day from 11 hours to 24 hours.Zero-person-in-tunnel
In 2025 TBC demonstrated a machine that tunneled with no people monitoring/working with it inside the tunnel. The system digs the tunnel, removes the slurry, and installs 12-ton ring cylinders to line the tunnel.Projects
Hawthorne test tunnel
TBC built a high-speed tunnel in 2017 on a route in Hawthorne, California, at the SpaceX headquarters and manufacturing facility. The tunnel roadway has an asphalt surface, a guide-way for autonomous vehicle operation, and supports car trips at speeds of with autonomous control and up to under human control.Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC)
Convention Center
In May 2019, the company won a $48.7 million project to shuttle visitors in a loop underneath the LVCC. Boring of the first tunnel, long, began on November 15, 2019, and finished on February 14, 2020, excavating an average of per day. In May 2020, the boring of the second tunnel was completed, for a total of of tunnels. The tunnel opened in October 2021. Standard Tesla vehicles with human drivers are used as shuttles, traveling at about. The service was described by Las Vegas Tourism as "an important step in the development of a game-changing transportation solution in Las Vegas".Testing with volunteers in late May 2021 showed that the system could transport 4,400 passengers per hour. The system started transporting convention attendees on June 8, 2021. Designed to solve traffic congestion, the tunnel was intended to provide trips of less than two minutes, but has faced a number of traffic jams during busy events in 2021 and 2022.
Private tunnels to convention center
The tunnel to Resorts World Las Vegas opened in July 2022. As of April 2024, Las Vegas strip hotel Encore has a private tunnel underway to allow direct access from the hotel to LVCC.Vegas Loop
In October 2021, Clark County Commissioners approved a 50-year franchise agreement for a 52-stop, mostly-underground system, a " dual loop system...operating mainly in the Resort Corridor with stations at various resorts and connections to Allegiant Stadium, Brightline West Las Vegas Station, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas". TBC planned to build five to ten stations during the first year, and then add approximately 16 stations per year thereafter. TBC was responsible for funding the tunnel, while station costs would be funded by the resort properties and landowners.In May 2023, TBC was given permission to build the Vegas Loop underground transportation system to 69 stations for a tunnel network of. It would include the existing LVCC Loop and extensions to casinos along the Strip, Harry Reid International Airport, Allegiant Stadium, and downtown Las Vegas. TBC claims that once complete, the Vegas Loop would be able to transport more than 90,000 passengers per hour.
Due to operational expenses, it is probable that the Boring Company is subsidizing the Loop to keep customer prices low. A day pass from Resorts World costs $5, while the LVCVA is paying the Boring Company an additional $4.5 million annually, which equates to $7.50 per ride.
In February 2024, Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration found several safety violations at TBC, and fined it $112,000. The violations included eight serious violations from June to October 2023 and allegations that workers have faced chemical burns from sludge while working in the tunnels. Numerous employee accounts described the working conditions as "almost unbearable". The company challenged the ruling.
In March 2024, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board of directors voted to extend the existing tunnel, and vowed to address concerns that arose over the OSHA violations.
In April 2024, the Boring Company work in Las Vegas was named among the "Dirty Dozen", the worst workplace safety offenders in the US, by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health.
On May 28, 2025, Nevada's occupational safety agency fined the company $400,000, after two firefighters who were in Loop tunnels during a training exercise endured chemical burns. The fines were "summarily rescinded" the following day, at a meeting of Boring president Steve Davis with "high-ranking state officials".
On October 28, 2025, Boring was served a notice of violation and fined close to $500,000 for "dumping apparent drill fluid" into the sewer system of the Clark County Water Reclamation District, beginning April 21, 2025.