The Boring Company, Elon Musk’s tunneling company, just raised more capital.
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One of Elon Musk’s companies just got more valuable.
No, this isn’t about Tesla (ticker: TSLA) or SpaceX. This isn’t even about Musk’s recent bid for Twitter (TWTR). His tunneling company, named, of course, The Boring Company, just finished raising money.
The Boring Company is named literally. It bores “safe, fast-to-dig,” tunnels deep underground. The tunnels can be used for traffic, utilities, or freight. The company’s goal is to reduce traffic congestion and make city life a little better and more efficient.
The Boring Company might be known for its flamethrower as for its tunnels. The company says it has sold 20,000 “not-a-flamethrower” flamethrowers on its website.
The company said in a Wednesday news release that it raised $675 million, led by investments from Vy Capital and Sequoia Capital. The capital raise values Boring at about $5.7 billion. That is a good chunk of change, but it doesn’t move the needle on Musk’s net worth all that much.
(The Boring Company didn’t immediately return a request for comment about Musk’s ownership percentage.)
Musk has other, larger business interests. He owns 170 million-plus shares, or about 17%, of Tesla. He also has millions of options to buy more Tesla stock for about $70 a share. Musk also owns between 40% and 50% of the stock in his space company SpaceX, which is valued at about $100 billion based on its recent capital raises.
(SpaceX didn’t immediately return a request for comment about valuation or Musk’s stake either.)
The Tesla stock, stock options, and SpaceX stake are worth more than $300 billion. That is a rough estimate and assumes all of Musk’s Tesla stock options will vest. So the Boring stake only changes his net worth by a percent or two.
As for Musk-related news Thursday, the Boring capital raise will likely take a back seat to Tesla’s first-quarter results. Tesla blew away earnings expectations. The company reported $3.22 in adjust earnings per share. Wall Street was looking for closer to $2.30.
Tesla stock rose 3.2% in Thursday trading, closing at $1,008.78. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1.5% and 1.1%, respectively. The market gave up earlier gains after hawkish comments from Fed chair Jerome Powell.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]
