Elon Musk has just had the worst month of his financial life. His net worth fell from a peak of roughly $1.32 trillion to about $832 billion over the course of a month, a decline of roughly 37%, or about $500 billion, according to Benzinga’s tracking. While the Bloomberg Billionaires Index ticks backward at the fastest pace ever recorded for a single individual, Musk is quietly raising money for the company almost no one talks about.
The Boring Company, Musk’s tunnel-construction venture, is reportedly in talks to raise about $4 billion in new funding at a valuation of roughly $20 billion, more than tripling its 2022 valuation of $5.7 billion. As of the most recent reporting, the deal has not closed and terms could change; Musk has not publicly commented.
Where the Money Went
The primary driver of the wipeout was SpaceX. SpaceX shares fell roughly 41% to 45% over the relevant month, erasing more than $1 trillion in market cap, with an aborted Starship launch accelerating the slide. Tesla did the rest. On July 22, 2026, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) reported second-quarter revenue of $28.24 billion but adjusted earnings of just $0.33 per share, missing consensus by 38.51%. Free cash flow swung to negative $1.09 billion as capital expenditures more than doubled. The stock closed at $313.03 on July 24, down 17.81% for the week and 30.39% year to date.
Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja told analysts that “CapEx more than doubled sequentially, and we expect it to increase further in the second half of 2026,” confirming Tesla will spend more than $25 billion this year and secure debt facilities to borrow up to $30 billion. Musk framed the outlays as “one of the fastest industrial scale-ups in America” since World War II. Short sellers booked roughly $4 billion in a single day on the Tesla drop.
The Company Nobody Watches
A $4 billion private round for a tunneling company would ordinarily lead the news. It has not. That reticence has been the Boring Company’s defining feature. The venture operates the Vegas Loop, and has pitched or announced projects in Nashville, Dubai, Baltimore, Chicago, and Los Angeles. It has roughly 687 to 707 employees as of mid-2026, with annual revenue estimates ranging widely, from about $25 million to $500 million depending on the source.
The lack of scrutiny is measurable. In Walter Isaacson’s 615-page biography of Musk, The Boring Company is covered in only three pages. Several city-specific projects, in California, Illinois, Texas, Florida, and Maryland, quietly stalled or were disbanded with little follow-up. And seven years after its founding, the company had built only about 2.4 miles of operating tunnel, despite Las Vegas approval for a 68-mile underground transit system. The gap between track record and the confidence investors are being asked to place in it is the story.
What to Watch
Two signals will tell whether the raise holds. The first is the identity of the lead check writer: a sovereign wealth fund or marquee Silicon Valley firm would validate the $20 billion price; a syndicate of Musk-adjacent family offices would not. The second is whether Las Vegas breaks ground on additional Loop segments before year-end. Despite the drop, Musk remains the world’s richest person by a wide margin, and the Boring Company deal, if it closes on reported terms, will be the clearest test yet of whether Musk’s brand alone can command a triple valuation on thin operating data.
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