Hyperloop One to shut down after failing to reinvent transit
December 22, 2023
By Sarah McBride | Bloomberg
Hyperloop One, the futuristic transportation company building tube-encased lines to zip passengers and freight from city to city at airplane-like speeds, is shutting down, according to people familiar with the situation.
Once a high-profile startup, Hyperloop One raised more than $450 million since its founding in 2014, according to PitchBook. It built a small test track near Las Vegas to develop its transportation technology, and for a time took the name Virgin Hyperloop One after Richard Branson’s Virgin invested. Virgin removed its branding after the startup decided last year to focus on cargo rather than people.
ROBYN BECK/Agence France-Presse
In this file photo taken on July 22, 2018 SpaceX, Tesla and The Boring Company founder Elon Musk speaks at the 2018 SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition, in Hawthorne, California. – Tesla shares fell hard on August 17, 2018, after chief executive Elon Musk’s comments about his struggles with exhaustion as he works to ramp up production for the electric automaker and an unsuccessful effort to find a number two executive. In early trade, Tesla shares skidded 7.3 percent to $311 following the wide-ranging interview in Friday’s New York Times. (Photo by Robyn Beck / AFP)ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images
Team WARR Hyperloop check over their sled before moving it to the starting line at the 2018 Hyperloop pod competition at SpaceX in Hawthorne on Sunday, July 22, 2018. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)
Team Valentia shows off their pod pilot, as the last of 4 teams of students comprised of over 600 competitors from more than 40 countries around the world compete in Hawthorne, California, to showcase their pods at SpaceXÕs third Hyperloop Pod Competition Sunday. The winning team was WARR Hyperloop, as they hit speeds of 284 mph today.Photo by Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews/SCNG
Team members of EPF Loop make some last minute adjustments before their run in the 2018 Hyperloop pod competition at SpaceX in Hawthorne on Sunday, July 22, 2018. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)
A team member of Delft Hyperloop peers into the vacuum tube before their run in the 2018 Hyperloop pod competition at SpaceX in Hawthorne on Sunday, July 22, 2018. (Photo by Scott Varley, Daily Breeze/SCNG)
Team HYPEA from Edinburgh shows off their pod, as the last of 4 teams of students comprised of over 600 competitors from more than 40 countries around the world compete in Hawthorne, California, to showcase their pods at SpaceXÕs third Hyperloop Pod Competition Sunday. The winning team was WARR Hyperloop, as they hit speeds of 284 mph today.Photo by Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews/SCNG
Team EPFLoop from Switzerland get their pod ready, as the last of 4 teams of students comprised of over 600 competitors from more than 40 countries around the world compete in Hawthorne, California, to showcase their pods at SpaceXÕs third Hyperloop Pod Competition Sunday. The winning team was WARR Hyperloop, as they hit speeds of 284 mph today.Photo by Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews/SCNG
Team EPFLoop from Switzerland get their pod ready, as the last of 4 teams of students comprised of over 600 competitors from more than 40 countries around the world compete in Hawthorne, California, to showcase their pods at SpaceXÕs third Hyperloop Pod Competition Sunday. The winning team was WARR Hyperloop, as they hit speeds of 284 mph today.Photo by Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews/SCNG
Team EPFLoop from Switzerland does some last minute checks on the pipe track as the last of 4 teams of students comprised of over 600 competitors from more than 40 countries around the world compete in Hawthorne, California, to showcase their pods at SpaceXÕs third Hyperloop Pod Competition Sunday. The winning team was WARR Hyperloop, as they hit speeds of 284 mph today.Photo by Gene Blevins/LA DailyNews/SCNG
The Hawthorne-based Boring Co. is digging a Hyperloop tunnel in Baltimore, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced this week.
Inside the SpaceX hyperloop track along Jack Northrop Drive in Hawthorne, California. (Brad Graverson/The Daily Breeze/SCNG File Photo)
Elon Musk, right, talks with engineer Steve Davis (red hat) while watching video boards showing inside the Hyperloop tube. The first Hyperloop pod competition took place along side SpaceX Sunday, January 29, 2017, Hawthorne, CA. The Hyperloop pod is a concept by founder Elon Musk envisioning fast travel through a vacuum-sealed tube and hosted a competition for teams to compete their design. Photo by Steve McCrank, Daily Breeze/SCNG
NORTH LAS VEGAS, NV – MAY 11: People walk through a Hyperloop tube after the first test of a propulsion system at the Hyperloop One Test and Safety site on May 11, 2016 in North Las Vegas, Nevada. The company plans to create a fully operational hyperloop system by 2020. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images,)
This file image released by Tesla Motors shows a sketch of the Hyperloop capsule with passengers onboard. When billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk published fanciful plans to shoot capsules full of people at the speed of sound through a tube connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco, he asked the public to perfect his rough plans. From tinkerers to engineers, the race is on.
A conceptual rendering of a Hyperloop passenger capsule version with doors open at a station.
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Now, the company has laid off most of its employees, and is trying to sell its remaining assets, including the test track and machinery, according to one of the people, who asked to remain anonymous discussing private information. In early 2022, the company employed more than 200 people. The business has also closed its Los Angeles office. The remaining workers, tasked with overseeing the asset sale, were told their employment will end on Dec. 31.
DP World, the Dubai-based conglomerate, has backed Hyperloop One since 2016 and owns a majority stake. The startup’s remaining intellectual property will be transferred to DP World, a person familiar with the situation said.
Through a spokesman, DP World declined to comment. Raja Narayanan, Hyperloop One’s acting chief executive officer, also didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Hyperloop One, formally known as Hyperloop Technologies, merged with a shell company this April, according to a document reviewed by Bloomberg. At that time, the value of shares in most classes was written down to zero cents, and the shareholders of the shell company became the only owners of Hyperloop One. At an all-hands meeting, employees were told that DP World orchestrated the transaction, according to one of the people.
The company had captured the public’s imagination since its founding in 2014, a year after Elon Musk released a white paper outlining a vision for hyperloop technology. The concept was a tantalizing promise of a new kind of transportation technology — and an end to traffic.
But the nascent industry stumbled, and Hyperloop One never won a contract to build a working hyperloop. The company also attracted plenty of attention for the wrong reasons. Co-founder Brogan BamBrogan once arrived at work to find a noose on his chair. And another co-founder, the venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar, stepped aside after Bloomberg reported on sexual harassment allegations against him, which he denied. A one-time director, Ziyavudin Magomedov, was arrested in Moscow on charges of fraud and embezzlement unrelated to Hyperloop One. At the time, Magomedov’s lawyer said he was appealing the arrest.
Although no large-scale hyperloop has been built after years of effort, the concept continues to enchant entrepreneurs. Several hyperloop companies are at various stages of building protoypes, including Hardt Hyperloop, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc. and Swisspod Technologies.
Musk has promoted the field as well, creating a series of competitions for student-designed hyperloops and building a now-demolished test track. He also started Boring Co., a tunneling business that has pursued related technology.
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