The Boring Co. raises $3 billion, says funding will support Music City Loop expansion

The Boring Company has raised $3 billion from investors and says part of the new capital will support the continued buildout of Nashville's Music City Loop.

The tunneling company announced the Series D round on Sept. 9. The financing values The Boring Company at $23 billion, according to the company, which said the round was led by the United Arab Emirates and affiliated investment entities.

Other investors named by the company include Human Capital, Vy Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Temasek, Shamal Holding and Baron Capital.

For Nashville, the important part of the announcement is not simply the size of the round. The Boring Company specifically identified Music City Loop as one of the projects that will receive support from the new capital.

More money for a company already digging in Nashville

The Boring Company said the funding will be used to "significantly increase hiring" across engineering, operations and production while building and scaling Loop projects in Las Vegas, Nashville and Dubai, along with additional research and development.

The company did not disclose a Nashville-specific allocation.

That distinction matters. The $3 billion is a companywide financing round, not a $3 billion investment in Music City Loop. There is no public breakdown showing how much of the new capital will be spent on Nashville construction, payroll, equipment or stations.

The Nashville Business Journal reported Sept. 10 that the company had posted roughly two dozen Nashville positions and that a portion of the financing would accelerate hiring for Music City Loop. A LOOP Nashville check of the company's careers page on Sept. 11 found about 30 postings listing Nashville as a work location, including several multi-location internships. The total can change as roles are filled or added.

The company's current careers page lists Nashville openings across engineering, construction support, land acquisition, compliance, operations, procurement, facilities, safety and emergency response. Among the positions listed are an in-the-tunnel engineer, field mechanical engineer, project development associates, an operations manager for Music City Loop, corporate counsel, construction operations planner, environmental health and safety positions and a head of emergency response.

The number of open positions can change as roles are filled or added.

The financing arrives during active construction

Music City Loop is no longer in a preconstruction phase.

The Boring Company says tunneling began Feb. 25, the same day the Tennessee Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration approved the company's lease and enhanced grading permit for state right-of-way.

By August, two Prufrock tunnel boring machines were mining simultaneously in Nashville, according to the company's Sept. 9 financing announcement. A third machine was still in final assembly at the company's Bastrop, Texas, facility for shipment to Nashville.

That is slightly more specific than the company's Aug. 1 Music City Loop update, which said Prufrock-MB3 was on track to arrive in Nashville in September. As of the Sept. 9 financing announcement, The Boring Company had not said that the third machine had arrived.

The company also says more than 40 potential Music City Loop stations are in various stages of planning and design with property owners. Publicly identified station activity includes Nashville International Airport, the Music City Center, a residential station at PRIME serving three Giarratana towers, and an agreement with the JW Marriott in downtown Nashville.

Some of those projects are at different stages. The airport station is in design and permitting, according to The Boring Company. The Convention Center Authority has approved a tunnel easement at Music City Center, but that action did not itself approve a passenger station.

What the $23 billion valuation tells investors — and what it does not

The Boring Company says the financing gives it a $23 billion valuation. The Nashville Business Journal reported that figure is about four times the company's valuation from its previous major funding round four years ago.

A private-company valuation is based on the terms investors accept in a financing transaction. It is not the same thing as cash on hand, annual revenue or the budget available for Music City Loop.

The new round does, however, give The Boring Company additional capital at a time when it is simultaneously expanding its operating system in Las Vegas, preparing work in Dubai and increasing construction activity in Nashville.

The company's Sept. 9 announcement says the funding will also support further development of its Prufrock tunneling technology.

What remains unknown

The central Nashville question is how much of the $3 billion will actually be deployed here.

The Boring Company has not publicly disclosed a Music City Loop construction budget tied to the Series D financing, a Nashville hiring target, or a schedule showing how the new capital changes the project's construction timeline.

It also has not said whether the financing changes the number of tunneling machines planned for Nashville beyond the three machines already publicly discussed.

Those details will determine whether the funding round produces a measurable change in the pace or scale of Music City Loop construction. For now, the verified development is narrower: The Boring Company has raised $3 billion, it specifically lists Music City Loop among the projects the money will help build and scale, and its Nashville hiring effort remains active.