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Hyperloop Onethe futuristic transportation company that builds tubular lines to transport passengers and goods from city to city at the speed of an airplane is closing its doors, according to people familiar with the matter.
Hyperloop One, once a prominent startup, has 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 investment from Richard Branson’s Virgin. Virgin removed its brand after the startup decided last year to focus on cargo rather than people.
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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 machines, according to one of the people, who asked to remain anonymous discussing information private. At the start of 2022, the company employed more than 200 people. The company also closed its Los Angeles office. The remaining workers, responsible for overseeing the sale of the assets, were informed that their employment would end on December 31.
DP World, the Dubai-based conglomerate, has supported Hyperloop One since 2016 and holds a majority stake. The rest of the startup’s intellectual property will be transferred to DP World, a person familiar with the matter said.
Through a spokesperson, DP World declined to comment. Raja Narayanan, interim CEO of Hyperloop One, also did not respond to requests for comment.
Hyperloop One, formerly known as Hyperloop Technologies, merged with a shell company in April, according to a document reviewed by Bloomberg. At that time, the stock value of most classes was reduced to zero cents and the shareholders of the shell company became the sole owners of Hyperloop One. At an all-hands meeting, employees were informed that DP World had orchestrated the transaction, according to one of the people present.
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The company had captured the public imagination since its inception in 2014, a year after Elon Musk published a white paper describing a vision of hyperloop technology. The concept was a tantalizing promise of a new type of transportation technology and the end of traffic.
But the fledgling industry stumbled, and Hyperloop One never won a contract to build a working hyperloop. The company has also attracted a lot of attention for the wrong reasons. Co-founder Brogan BamBrogan arrived at work one day to find a noose on his chair. And another co-founder, venture capitalist Shervin Pishevar, stepped down after Bloomberg reported sexual harassment allegations against him, which he denied. A former director, Ziyavudin Magomedov, was arrested in Moscow on fraud and embezzlement charges unrelated to Hyperloop One. At the time, Magomedov’s lawyer said he was appealing the arrest.
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Even though no large-scale hyperloop has been built after years of effort, the concept continues to delight entrepreneurs. Several hyperloop companies are in various stages of creating protoTypes, including Hardt Hyperloop, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc., and Swisspod Technologies.
Musk has also promoted the field, creating a series of competitions for student-designed hyperloops and building a now-demolished test track. He also started Boring Co., a tunneling company that developed related technologies.
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