The Boring Company (TBC) 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 (LVCC) Loop, a three-station transportation system with 1.7 miles (2.7 km) 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 68 miles (109 km) of tunnels. In October 2025, TBC began trialing self-driving vehicles with a safety driver on one section of the Las Vegas Loop. Many other TBC projects in cities across the United States were announced, but subsequently became inactive or were canceled.
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 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 (in 2003) and has 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 14-acre (5.7 ha) industrial complex northeast of Austin, approximately 16 miles (26 km) 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 25 miles (40 km) east of Texas Gigafactory. Musk has previously addressed the question of whether the company would use its technology to build a base on Mars to avoid radiation. While SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell stated that such an application could be a good idea, Musk also has suggested that the company's tunneling technology could potentially be used in the development of future settlements on Mars.
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 30 m-long (98 ft) and 30 cm-wide (0.98 ft)". 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 22 m (72 ft) 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 30 m (98 ft)-long 500 mm (20 in)-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 7 mm/s (0.28 in/s). Swissloop Tunneling finished second overall and won the innovation award.
Machines
Godot TBC's first boring machine was Godot, a conventional tunnel boring machine (TBM) made by Lovat.
Prufrock Godot was followed by Prufrock. It introduced the principle of onsite upgrades.
Prufrock MB1 Prufrock medium bore 1 (MB1) introduced porpoising, continuous mining, rapid iteration, and remote operation (termed "zero people in tunnel" (ZPIT)). It was the first TBC machine to tunnel through rock (limestone). Its cutter head featured 15.5-inch disc cutters.
Prufrock MB2 The company said in 2022 that the goal of MB2 was to dig up to a mile per week, which is six times faster than Godot. Compared to MB1, it offered 15% higher power and 1.5-inch larger disc cutters (which were 17-inch). Prufrock-MB2 arrived in Nashville, Tennessee, in April 2026 and completed testing in June 2026.
Prufrock MB3 The company said in 2022 that the goal of MB3 was to dig up to seven miles per day. As of June 2026, MB3 is being built and specifications are not available.
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