Boring Company Raises $3 Billion in UAE-Led Round at $23 Billion
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Boring Company Raises $3 Billion in UAE-Led Round at $23 Billion
The tunneling company's valuation is now roughly four times its 2022 mark, and the announcement did not mention the Nashville subcontractor dispute and council vote against its own U.S. project.
The Boring Company raised $3 billion in a Series D round led by the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, valuing Elon Musk's tunneling company at $23 billion, according to TechCrunch. Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Temasek, Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Human Capital, Shamal Holding and Baron Capital joined the UAE in the round, Electrek reported.
$23 billion is roughly four times the $5.7 billion valuation Boring Company carried after a $675 million round in 2022, according to Electrek, a multiple built on four years rather than a single financing cycle. It is also a different shape of deal than what was reported in July, when the company was said to be seeking up to $4 billion at a $20 billion valuation. What closed in September was a smaller check at a higher price, the version of this story that matters more than the headline number.
What the money buys
The capital funds hiring across engineering, operations and production, continued work on the Prufrock tunnel-boring machine, and more than 150 kilometers of new tunnel construction across the UAE, on top of the existing Dubai Loop award, according to TechCrunch. The Boring Company has signed a construction contract with Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority for a 6.4-kilometer pilot phase of four stations, connecting the Dubai International Financial Centre and Dubai Mall, with construction due to start in late 2026, Electrek reported.
"Defeating traffic is the ultimate boss battle. Even the most powerful humans in the world cannot defeat traffic," Musk said, according to Electrek. In Las Vegas, the company's most established project, Boring Company says its Loop has carried more than 4 million passengers with a 14th tunnel under construction toward a 123-station network the city has approved.
What the announcement left out
Neither TechCrunch nor Electrek's report of the funding mentions a dispute that has been running in Nashville, the company's other active U.S. project, since November. Shane Trucking and Excavating, a subcontractor on the Music City Loop, walked off the job on Nov. 24, 2025, saying it had been paid only 5 percent of six-figure invoices and citing wood supports used in place of concrete at depth, according to Electrek's report on the walkout. "It does look like we had some invoicing errors on that," Boring Company Vice President David Buss said at the time, per Electrek, adding that outstanding invoices would be paid the next day.
Nashville's Metro Council voted 20 to 15, with two abstentions, on March 4 to formally oppose the Music City Loop over transparency, community engagement and safety concerns, according to the Nashville Banner. The resolution is non-binding and cannot stop construction, and Tennessee's state legislature has since taken up bills that would strip Nashville of oversight authority over the tunnel altogether.
- 2022 (after $675M round)5.7 $ billions
- Sept. 2026 (Series D)23 $ billions
Source: Electrek, accessed 2026-09-11
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Nov. 24, 2025 | Subcontractor walks off Nashville tunnel site over unpaid invoices |
| Feb. 25, 2026 | Nashville permits Music City Loop tunneling to begin |
| March 4, 2026 | Metro Council votes 20-15 to formally oppose the project |
| Sept. 10, 2026 | Boring Company closes $3 billion Series D at $23 billion |
The UAE money is earmarked for a market with none of Nashville's friction yet on record, and the $5 billion round that valued Positron AI's inference chips this same month shows sovereign and strategic capital moving at similar speed elsewhere in hard infrastructure. It follows the same pattern as Google's decades-long nuclear power deal in Finland: long-dated foreign capital committing to physical infrastructure years before it can be judged on results. Whether the Dubai pilot avoids the labor and permitting problems that have slowed the Tennessee project is the detail that will actually test the new valuation, not the close of the round itself. The next milestone is the start of construction on the Dubai pilot, due in late 2026.
Sources
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