Elon Musk’s 700 mph hyperloop tech hasn’t become reality. But companies aren’t giving up
The Hyperloop test track tube with its transport cabin is open for viewing before the opening begins. The new Hyperloop test track at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) includes a 24-meter-long vacuum tube made of concrete and a full-size passenger vehicle – it is the first in Europe to be fully certified for passenger operation, according to TUM.
Peter Kneffel | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
MUNICH — Hyperloop, a mega-fast transportation system dreamed up in 2013 by Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, was supposed to be a reality by now.
But it hasn’t quite worked out that way.
There has been so much hype, with several firms years ago saying that we would have a mass-scale hyperloop system by now. That just hasn’t happened. Many believe the hyperloop concept will eventually challenge other forms of transportation, including airplanes, by moving people and cargo through tubes at speeds of around to 700 miles per hour.
The dream of a hyperloop hasn’t ended yet.
“I’ve been working on this for seven years now, we wouldn’t be doing it if we don’t believe in it. I mean, I think a lot of the hype, when it came out was really optimistic, like, in two years, in three years, I don’t know. But this is, I mean, this is a timeline that you can use if you build software, maybe, but not if you build infrastructure,” Gabriele Semino, project lead at TUM Hyperloop, told CNBC in an interview.
“Obviously, for this kind of a completely new system, you need to … develop it.”
Since its inception, several companies have been racing to develop their own versions of the hyperloop. TUM Hyperloop is the brainchild of Technical University of Munich. The company is currently building up the technology.
At the IAA auto show in Munich this month, TUM Hyperloop showed off the pod that passengers would sit in. The company has built a tube about 24 meters in length. While this is a short distance, TUM Hyperloop is trying to test the systems work before continuing to build a long track.
Semino said he expects that by the end of this decade the technology will be ready. This would mean short tracks with the hyperloop operating at full speed and transporting passengers. By the end of the next decade, hyperloop technology will have longer tracks built through continents, Semino said.
Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) and Elon Musk’s Boring Company are also exploring the technology.
Europe a frontrunner for the tech
Hyperloop technology has a chance to solve a lot of problems. It would be a green and super-fast mode of transport. It could also reduce the need to take flights or drive in places like the U.S. or continental Europe.
Semino said it could take the burden off of traditional train lines which could then be used to transport cargo.
“This is not .. wishful thinking. There is right now a necessity for new and better infrastructure,” Semino said.
He said that while regions like the Middle East and China would be candidates for this technology, Europe will likely be among the first regions to get the technology.
“I think right now, for Hyperloop specifically, the region that is making the most progress is Europe,” Semino said.
The European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm, is currently looking into establishing a framework for hyperloop technology.
“From a government framework point of view, Europe is the one that’s most interesting right now” Semino said.
The Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, June 9, 2023.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Silicon Valley executives and financiers publicly opened their wallets in support of President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential run. The early returns in 2025 aren’t great, to say the least.
Following Trump’s sweeping tariff plan announced Wednesday, the Nasdaq suffered steep consecutive daily drops to finish 10% lower for the week, the index’s worst performance since the beginning of the Covid pandemic in 2020.
The tech industry’s leading CEO’s rushed to contribute to Trump’s inauguration in January and paraded to Washington, D.C., for the event. Since then, it’s been a slog.
The market can always turn around, but economists and investors aren’t optimistic, and concerns are building of a potential recession. The seven most valuable U.S. tech companies lost a combined $1.8 trillion in market cap in two days.
Apple slid 14% for the week, its biggest drop in more than five years. Tesla, led by top Trump adviser Elon Musk, plunged 9.2% and is now down more than 40% for the year. Musk contributed close to $300 million to help propel Trump back to the White House.
Nvidia, Meta and Amazon all suffered double-digit drops for the week. For Amazon, a ninth straight weekly decline marks its longest such losing streak since 2008.
With Wall Street selling out of risky assets on concern that widespread tariff hikes will punish the U.S. and global economy, the fallout has drifted down to the IPO market. Online lender Klarna and ticketing marketplace StubHub delayed their IPOs due to market turbulence, just weeks after filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and fintech company Chime is also reportedly delaying its listing.
CoreWeave, a provider of artificial intelligence infrastructure, last week became the first venture-backed company to raise more than $1 billion in a U.S. IPO since 2021. But the company slashed its offering, and trading has been very volatile in its opening days on the market. The stock plunged 12% on Friday, leaving it 17% above its offer price but below the bottom of its initial range.
“You couldn’t create a worse market and macro environment to go public,” said Phil Haslett, co-founder of EquityZen, a platform for investing in private companies. “Way too much turbulence. All flights are grounded until further notice.”
CoreWeave investor Mark Klein of SuRo Capital previously told CNBC that the company could be the first in an “IPO parade.” Now he’s backtracking.
“It appears that the IPO parade has been temporarily halted,” Klein told CNBC by email on Friday. “The current tariff situation has prompted these companies to pause and assess its impact.”
‘Cave rapidly’
During last year’s presidential campaign, prominent venture capitalists like Marc Andreessen backed Trump, expecting that his administration would usher in a boom and eliminate some of the hurdles to startup growth set up by the Biden administration. Andreessen and his partner, Ben Horowitz, said in July that their financial support of the Trump campaign was due to what they called a better “little tech agenda.”
A spokesperson for Andreessen Horowitz declined to comment.
Some techies who supported Trump in the campaign have taken to social media to defend their positions.
Venture capitalist Keith Rabois, a managing director at Khosla Ventures, posted on X on Thursday that “Trump Derangement Syndrome has morphed into Tariff Derangement Syndrome.” He said tariffs aren’t inflationary, are effective at reducing fentanyl imports, and he expects that “most other countries will cave and cave rapidly.”
That was before China’s Finance Ministry said on Friday that it will impose a 34% tariff on all goods imported from the U.S. starting on April 10.
At Sequoia Capital, which is the biggest investor in Klarna, outspoken Trump supporter Shaun Maguire, wrote on X, “The first long-term thinking President of my lifetime,” and said in a separate post that, “The price of stocks says almost nothing about the long term health of an economy.”
However, Allianz Chief Economic Advisor Mohamed El-Erian warned on Friday that Trump’s extensive raft of import tariffs are putting the U.S. economy at risk of recession.
“You’ve had a major repricing of growth prospects, with a recession in the U.S. going up to 50% probability, you’ve seen an increase in inflation expectations, up to 3.5%,” he told CNBC’s Silvia Amaro on the sidelines of the Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio, Italy.
Former Microsoft CEOs Bill Gates, left, and Steve Ballmer, center, pose for photos with CEO Satya Nadella during an event celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Microsoft on April 4, 2025 in Redmond, Washington.
Stephen Brashear | Getty Images
Meanwhile, executives at tech’s megacap companies were largely silent this week, and their public relations representatives declined to provide comments about their thinking.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was in the awkward position on Friday of celebrating his company’s 50th anniversary at corporate headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Alongside Microsoft’s prior two CEOs, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, Nadella sat down with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin for a televised interview that was planned well before Trump’s tariff announcement.
When asked about the tariffs at the top of the interview, Nadella effectively dodged the question and avoided expressing his views about whether the new policies will hamper Microsoft’s business.
Ballmer, who was succeeded by Nadella in 2014, acknowledged to Sorkin that “disruption is very hard on people” and that, “as a Microsoft shareholder, this kind of thing is not good.” Ballmer and Gates are two of the 12 wealthiest people in the world thanks to their Microsoft fortunes.
C-suites may not be able to stay quiet for long, especially if the recent turmoil spills into next week.
Lise Buyer, who previously helped guide Google through its IPO and now works as an adviser to companies going public, said there’s no appetite for risk in the market under these conditions. But there is risk that staffers get jittery, and they’ll surely look to their leaders for some reassurance.
“Until markets settle out and we have the opportunity to access valuation levels, public company CEOs should work to calm potentially distressed employees,” Buyer said in an email. “And private company managements should refine plans to get by on dollars already in the treasury.”
— CNBC’s Hayden Field, Jordan Novet, Leslie Picker, Annie Palmer and Samantha Subin contributed to this report.
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