Elon Musk’s tunneling company, The Boring Company, has signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi to explore underground transport tunnels. The Abu Dhabi Projects and Infrastructure Centre (ADPIC) and the company signed it at the LIVEX 2026 exhibition, with the news announced on Thursday, October 8, Khaleej Times reported. Khaleej Times describes the agreement as exploratory and says no routes, timelines or costs were announced.
What the deal covers
The agreement covers exploring underground transport and utility tunnels, including whether projects are viable and how they would be built and run, and whether Abu Dhabi could become a regional hub for advanced tunneling, according to Khaleej Times. Gulf News says the areas of cooperation include “tunnel planning, advanced boring technologies, construction methods, safety standards”, among others. Boring Company president Steve Davis signed for the company and ADPIC director general Maysarah Mahmoud Salim Eid for Abu Dhabi, per Khaleej Times and Gulf News. The National says Davis called Abu Dhabi an ideal place to explore next-generation underground infrastructure.
The UAE link
The company is already working in Dubai on the Dubai Loop, Khaleej Times reported. In September, Reuters reported that The Boring Company raised $3 billion at a $23 billion valuation, in a round led by the UAE and affiliated investors. Reuters said the money would help fund more than 150 km (93 miles) of underground infrastructure across the UAE, building on its Dubai Loop.
Our take: exploratory means study, not construction. Nothing announced says what would be built, where, or who would pay. The UAE ties are real, though: the company’s recent funding round was led by investors from there, Reuters reported, and the company already has the Dubai Loop in the UAE. Routes, costs and dates would be the signs that this is moving from study to building. We found no wire coverage of the signing, so the details here rest on UAE outlets.
