According to sources cited by Bloomberg, Hyperloop One, a company once at the forefront of high-speed transportation technology, is facing imminent closure. The company has reportedly laid off most of its staff and is attempting to sell its remaining assets, including test tracks and machinery. The Los Angeles office has been shut down, and the remaining staff overseeing the asset sale have been informed that their employment will end on December 31.
Hyperloop One, inspired by Elon Musk's concept of a "super high-speed rail," was once a highly anticipated startup. Since its inception in 2014, the company raised over $450 million to develop its transportation technology, constructing a small test track near Las Vegas. As of early 2022, the company employed over 200 people.
Musk introduced the concept in a 2013 white paper, proposing a new mode of transportation using aerodynamic principles. Aluminum pods could transport passengers or cargo at speeds up to 760 miles per hour through near-vacuum tubes, either elevated or buried, between or within cities. Musk referred to this as the "fifth mode of transportation."
The vision was ambitious: a super high-speed rail system using magnetic levitation to enable nearly silent travel, cutting the New York to Washington journey to just 30 minutes, twice as fast as a commercial jet and four times faster than a high-speed train.
DP World, a Dubai-based enterprise group, has been supporting Hyperloop One since 2016 and holds a majority stake. Under DP World's influence, Hyperloop One shifted its focus from passenger transport to freight technology. A source indicated that the remaining intellectual property of the startup would be transferred to DP World, which declined to comment on the matter. Raja Narayanan, the acting CEO of Hyperloop One, also did not respond to inquiries.
Documents reviewed by Bloomberg reveal that Hyperloop One merged with a shell company in April this year. At that time, most classes of stock were written down to zero, leaving the shell company's shareholders as the sole owners of Hyperloop One. Employees were reportedly informed during a meeting that DP World orchestrated the transaction.
Despite never securing a contract to build a functioning super high-speed rail, Hyperloop One garnered significant attention, often for controversial reasons. Co-founder Brogan BamBrogan once found a noose on his chair at work. Another co-founder, venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar, left the company following sexual harassment allegations reported by Bloomberg, which he denied. Ziyavudin Magomedov, a former board member, was arrested in Moscow on unrelated charges of fraud and embezzlement, with his lawyer stating he was appealing.
While no large-scale super high-speed rail has been built after years of effort, the concept continues to intrigue entrepreneurs. Several hyperloop companies, including Hardt Hyperloop, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, and Swisspod Technologies, are at various stages of prototype construction. Musk has continued to promote the field, organizing student-involved hyperloop competitions and constructing a test track in California, now dismantled. His Boring Company is digging underground tunnels in Las Vegas, not for hyperloop but for Teslas.
Critics argue that while technically feasible, the super high-speed rail remains a vaporware, a "utopian vision" economically unviable.
