Elon Musk's Boring Company to build transport tunnel "like a wormhole" in Dubai

Elon Musk's infrastructure firm The Boring Company has been given the green light on the Dubai Loop, a 17-kilometre transport tunnel under Dubai that will link the city with speeds of up to 100 miles per hour.

Musk, a US entrepreneur and special government employee, unveiled his plans for the Dubai Loop in a speech made by video call at the 2025 World Governments Summit in Dubai.

Collaborating with the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai, The Boring Company entered a memorandum of understanding to build a 17-kilometre pilot tunnel as the first phase of the Dubai Loop project.

"I think once people try it out, they'll be like, 'Wow, this is really cool,'" Musk said at the global governance conference.

"It's going to be like a wormhole," he continued. "You just wormhole from one part of the city, boom, and you're out in another part of the city."

Announcing Dubai Loop.

In partnership with the @rta_dubai, TBC is excited to announce Dubai Loop. @boringcompany would like to thank The Crown Prince of Dubai @HamdanMohammed and the Chairman of the RTA. pic.twitter.com/83kyuET44i

— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) February 13, 2025

Elon Musk has announced The Boring Company will build the 17-kilometre Dubai Loop

The first phase of the Dubai Loop will have 11 stations and is set to transport over 20,000 passengers per hour.

Aiming to quickly and sustainably transport people around the city, the tunnel will have electric vehicles that travel in a set looped path at speeds up to 100 miles per hour.

The Boring Company hopes to expand the tunnel system to the wider Dubai emirate in the future, aiming to transport over 100,000 passengers per hour.

Dubai Loop set to cut travel time "to just minutes"

"With potential speeds of up to 100 miles per hour, the Loop could cut travel time between key points in Dubai to just minutes," said The Boring Company.

"Utilizing electric vehicles within a controlled environment, the system will contribute to Dubai's ambitious sustainability goals, aligning with the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050."

The Dubai Loop follows The Boring Company's Loop system in Las Vegas, which has been operating since 2021.

It mainly serves the Las Vegas Convention Center by shuttling passengers in Tesla 3 Model cars between stations at a top speed of 40 miles per hour, as reported in the Daily Mail.

Additional phases planned for the Vegas Loop will see it be extended to 104 stations and 110 kilometres (68 miles) of tunnels.

Musk has also proposed looped Tesla tunnels for Miami, claiming that underground road tunnels would solve traffic problems above ground.

The Boring Company has been testing high-speed transportation in its R&D tunnel in Los Angeles County, which was completed in 2018. It features a 1.83-kilometre track that hurtles cars at 150 miles per hour between two stations.

In December last year, Musk claimed his infrastructure firm could build a transatlantic tunnel between New York and London for around $20 billion, which is 1,000 times less money than previously estimated.

A signing ceremony with representatives from The Boring Company in the presence of Dubai ruler Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum was held at the World Governments Summit to commemorate the Dubai Loop memorandum of understanding.

A number of large-scale transport and masterplan projects have recently been approved in Dubai. A 64-kilometre-long arterial road will be converted into the "world's greenest highway" and 6,500 kilometres of pedestrian walkways are set to be built, including an elevated air-conditioned looped path.

Top image of the R&D tunnel via The Boring Company.

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