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The Boring Company’s innovations take center stage at Hawthorne test tunnel opening event
Two years ago, Elon Musk founded a tunneling startup aimed at battling what he creatively described as “soul-destroying traffic.” Musk’s idea was simple — traffic congestion can be addressed by using underground tunnels where vehicles can travel at extremely fast speeds on electric skates. Hence, a startup aptly named The Boring Company was born.
Since then, the tunneling company has acquired a high-profile project in Chicago, developed low-cost bricks from tunneling rocks, and completed its first test tunnel. Constructed on the backyard of the SpaceX headquarters, the Boring Company’s Hawthorne test tunnel was unveiled on Tuesday in an opening party, complete with entertainment, fun activities, and a medieval watchtower overlaid with Boring Bricks.
Being smaller in diameter than traditional tunnels, The Boring Company’s projects are more cost-effective and faster to construct. Its 1.14-mile Hawthorne tunnel, for example only cost ~$10 million to build, including internal infrastructure, lighting, comms/video, safety systems, ventilation, and tracks. Conventional tunneling projects, which involve larger tunnels and traditional digging methods, could cost as much as $1 billion per mile.
Elon Musk conducted an information session to members of the press prior to the official start of the unveiling. During the meeting, Musk discussed some updates about the startup’s concepts. For one, Musk noted that The Boring Company had changed its idea of using electric skates to propel cars. Instead of using pre-made electric skates, the company is now using the vehicle as the skate itself.
“There won’t be a skate — no more skate. The vehicle is the skate,” Musk said.
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- (Photo: Tom Cross/Teslarati)
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Tesla Model X fitted with electric skates for transportation through The Boring Company’s Hawthorne test tunnel. (Photo: Tom Cross/Teslarati)
The Hawthorne test tunnel would be utilizing the Loop System, which is designed to accommodate cars and passenger pods. During the Q&A, Musk noted that the Loop is a step towards the eventual creation of Hyperloop, which utilizes pods traveling inside low-pressure tubes at speeds of up to 700 mph. “The loop is a stepping stone toward Hyperloop. Loop is for transport within a city. And Hyperloop is transport between cities,” Musk said.
Apart from referencing Hyperloop transportation, Musk further discussed other possible uses for The Boring Company’s technology. Reiterating an idea he expressed during a “fireside chat” in Los Angeles with LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, Musk noted that the Boring Co.’s tunnels could also be used for utilities such as water lines. Due to the tunnels’ construction and design, Musk stated that “If a water main breaks, it floods through the tunnel one end, and gets pumped out the other.” This would allow cities to address utility issues without much hassle.
Just like Musk’s other companies like Tesla and SpaceX, The Boring Company is in a constant process of innovation. The startup, for one, continues to design and develop its third-generation Tunnel Boring Machine. Once operational, the new TBM would be capable of digging 15 times faster than a conventional boring machine. Apart from using a fully-electric system to increase power, The Boring Machine is also designing the upcoming TBM’s cutter head to process more dirt. In yet another step away from convention, the tunneling startup is also creating reinforcement segments on site using the dirt excavated from the tunnel itself.
Musk has noted that The Boring Company’s tunneling projects are already attracting a lot of interest, stating that “we have more demand on tunnels than we can satisfy,” and that “we have people hounding us to invest nonstop.” In a flourish of classic Elon Musk humor, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO noted that “it’s kinda ridiculous how much interest we’ve had in investing in Boring Company.” Elaborating further, Steve Davis, the CEO of the Boring Company, added that the startup receives “greater than 5 and less than 20 requests per week from different municipalities and stakeholders.”
News
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang explains difference between Tesla FSD and Alpamayo
“Tesla’s FSD stack is completely world-class,” the Nvidia CEO said.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has offered high praise for Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system during a Q&A at CES 2026, calling it “world-class” and “state-of-the-art” in design, training, and performance.
More importantly, he also shared some insights about the key differences between FSD and Nvidia’s recently announced Alpamayo system.
Jensen Huang’s praise for Tesla FSD
Nvidia made headlines at CES following its announcement of Alpamayo, which uses artificial intelligence to accelerate the development of autonomous driving solutions. Due to its focus on AI, many started speculating that Alpamayo would be a direct rival to FSD. This was somewhat addressed by Elon Musk, who predicted that “they will find that it’s easy to get to 99% and then super hard to solve the long tail of the distribution.”
During his Q&A, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was asked about the difference between FSD and Alpamayo. His response was extensive:
“Tesla’s FSD stack is completely world-class. They’ve been working on it for quite some time. It’s world-class not only in the number of miles it’s accumulated, but in the way it’s designed, the way they do training, data collection, curation, synthetic data generation, and all of their simulation technologies.
“Of course, the latest generation is end-to-end Full Self-Driving—meaning it’s one large model trained end to end. And so… Elon’s AD system is, in every way, 100% state-of-the-art. I’m really quite impressed by the technology. I have it, and I drive it in our house, and it works incredibly well,” the Nvidia CEO said.
Nvidia’s platform approach vs Tesla’s integration
Huang also stated that Nvidia’s Alpamayo system was built around a fundamentally different philosophy from Tesla’s. Rather than developing self-driving cars itself, Nvidia supplies the full autonomous technology stack for other companies to use.
“Nvidia doesn’t build self-driving cars. We build the full stack so others can,” Huang said, explaining that Nvidia provides separate systems for training, simulation, and in-vehicle computing, all supported by shared software.
He added that customers can adopt as much or as little of the platform as they need, noting that Nvidia works across the industry, including with Tesla on training systems and companies like Waymo, XPeng, and Nuro on vehicle computing.
“So our system is really quite pervasive because we’re a technology platform provider. That’s the primary difference. There’s no question in our mind that, of the billion cars on the road today, in another 10 years’ time, hundreds of millions of them will have great autonomous capability. This is likely one of the largest, fastest-growing technology industries over the next decade.”
He also emphasized Nvidia’s open approach, saying the company open-sources its models and helps partners train their own systems. “We’re not a self-driving car company. We’re enabling the autonomous industry,” Huang said.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk confirms xAI’s purchase of five 380 MW natural gas turbines
The deal, which was confirmed by Musk on X, highlights xAI’s effort to aggressively scale its operations.
xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, has purchased five additional 380 MW natural gas turbines from South Korea’s Doosan Enerbility to power its growing supercomputer clusters.
The deal, which was confirmed by Musk on X, highlights xAI’s effort to aggressively scale its operations.
xAI’s turbine deal details
News of xAI’s new turbines was shared on social media platform X, with user @SemiAnalysis_ stating that the turbines were produced by South Korea’s Doosan Enerbility. As noted in an Asian Business Daily report, Doosan Enerbility announced last October that it signed a contract to supply two 380 MW gas turbines for a major U.S. tech company. Doosan later noted in December that it secured an order for three more 380 MW gas turbines.
As per the X user, the gas turbines would power an additional 600,000+ GB200 NVL72 equivalent size cluster. This should make xAI’s facilities among the largest in the world. In a reply, Elon Musk confirmed that xAI did purchase the turbines. “True,” Musk wrote in a post on X.
xAI’s ambitions
Recent reports have indicated that xAI closed an upsized $20 billion Series E funding round, exceeding the initial $15 billion target to fuel rapid infrastructure scaling and AI product development. The funding, as per the AI startup, “will accelerate our world-leading infrastructure buildout, enable the rapid development and deployment of transformative AI products.”
The company also teased the rollout of its upcoming frontier AI model. “Looking ahead, Grok 5 is currently in training, and we are focused on launching innovative new consumer and enterprise products that harness the power of Grok, Colossus, and 𝕏 to transform how we live, work, and play,” xAI wrote in a post on its website.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s xAI closes upsized $20B Series E funding round
xAI announced the investment round in a post on its official website.
xAI has closed an upsized $20 billion Series E funding round, exceeding the initial $15 billion target to fuel rapid infrastructure scaling and AI product development.
xAI announced the investment round in a post on its official website.
A $20 billion Series E round
As noted by the artificial intelligence startup in its post, the Series E funding round attracted a diverse group of investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Stepstone Group, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Qatar Investment Authority, MGX, and Baron Capital Group, among others.
Strategic partners NVIDIA and Cisco Investments also continued support for building the world’s largest GPU clusters.
As xAI stated, “This financing will accelerate our world-leading infrastructure buildout, enable the rapid development and deployment of transformative AI products reaching billions of users, and fuel groundbreaking research advancing xAI’s core mission: Understanding the Universe.”
xAI’s core mission
Th Series E funding builds on xAI’s previous rounds, powering Grok advancements and massive compute expansions like the Memphis supercluster. The upsized demand reflects growing recognition of xAI’s potential in frontier AI.
xAI also highlighted several of its breakthroughs in 2025, from the buildout of Colossus I and II, which ended with over 1 million H100 GPU equivalents, and the rollout of the Grok 4 Series, Grok Voice, and Grok Imagine, among others. The company also confirmed that work is already underway to train the flagship large language model’s next iteration, Grok 5.
“Looking ahead, Grok 5 is currently in training, and we are focused on launching innovative new consumer and enterprise products that harness the power of Grok, Colossus, and 𝕏 to transform how we live, work, and play,” xAI wrote.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang explains difference between Tesla FSD and Alpamayo
Elon Musk confirms xAI’s purchase of five 380 MW natural gas turbines
