🚨 In 2016, Elon Musk casually spent $300M digging a tunnel underground.Wall Street laughed: “It’s just a publicity stunt.”Today? That “stunt” is worth $100B+.Here’s the wild story of The Boring Company the project Musk started as a joke tweet… that may end up solving traffic forever. 👇It began with frustration.Stuck in LA traffic, Musk fired off a tweet in Dec 2016:“Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging.”People thought he was trolling.Two weeks later, The Boring Company was born.Mission: dig tunnels to end gridlock.At first, nobody took him seriously.Analysts mocked: “This is a distraction. A PR stunt.”But Musk spotted what others ignored:Tunneling tech was outdatedCosts were insane ($1B per mile)Machines hadn’t improved in decadesHis plan: reinvent the industry.Step one? Buy a second-hand boring machine and start experimenting.Step two? Fund it in the most Musk way possible.In 2017, the company raised $112.5M.$100M came from Musk’s pocket.The rest? From selling 20,000 flamethrowers at $500 each.Wall Street rolled its eyes. Musk doubled down.By 2018, the first test tunnel in Hawthorne, California, was complete.Cost: $10M per mile.Traditional tunnels: $1B per mile.That’s a 99% cost cut.How? Smaller tunnels + continuous digging tech.Now it wasn’t a joke anymore.In 2019, Vegas called.The Boring Company won a $48.7M contract under the Convention Center.By 2021, it was finished fast, cheap, and functional.The “publicity stunt” suddenly had proof of concept.Investors woke up.In 2021, the company raised $675M at a $5.7B valuation.Then came the twist.By 2023, it wasn’t just about cars.Musk pivoted to utility tunnels: water, power, internet fiber.Valuation: $127B.Today:Projects are running in Vegas, Texas, Florida.Cities worldwide want in.The total market? Trillions.From one frustrated tweet → to Musk’s most valuable company yet.💡 Lessons:1. “Dumb” ideas can become billion-dollar revolutions.2. Ignore the crowd. Persist.3. Innovation can transform even the most boring industries.So… next time you’re stuck in traffic and have a “crazy” idea?Don’t dismiss it.It could be your $127B moment.
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