Elon Musk’s tunneling startup Boring Firm is working with a Nevada state-affiliated group to review a tunnel venture that may go underneath the nine-mile stretch of freeway from Reno to Tesla’s Gigafactory, based on paperwork reviewed by Fortune.
The Financial Growth Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN), a non-profit that recruits firms to do enterprise and broaden within the state, paid Boring Firm $50,000 in October to attract up conceptual designs and conduct a feasibility report for a brand new transportation different to the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Heart, the mega-business advanced that homes Tesla’s Gigafactory, based on a replica of the research bill, which was obtained by Fortune through a Freedom of Data Act Request.
The potential tunnel venture is one among a number of choices varied state teams are contemplating with a purpose to alleviate the steep rise in visitors and accidents alongside Interstate 80 as extra information facilities and corporations transfer into the 107,000-acre Industrial Heart east of Reno and Sparks, Nev. Tesla and Panasonic, the 2 largest firms within the Heart, have been involved with the Nevada Governor’s Workplace since a minimum of final spring about potential transportation options, based on emails, which had been additionally obtained by Fortune through the FOIA request. Each Tesla and Panasonic are working with the native transportation company to sponsor an ongoing research for a commuter rail system that may run on the freight rail subsequent to the interstate. Additionally they supplied funding to EDAWN to have a look at different choices, based on an e-mail from Chris Reilly, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo’s former infrastructure director, who launched a Boring Firm government to leaders at Tesla and Panasonic to debate the tunnel research.
It’s not clear if the report has been accomplished but, and the particular particulars of the report—together with the precise size of a proposed tunnel, the price of the projet, and the forms of automobiles envisioned for the tunnel, together with the potential for autonomous automobiles—couldn’t be realized.
Boring Firm, which at the moment operates a small stretch of tunnel with Teslas beneath the Las Vegas Conference Heart, has been attempting to pitch a tunnel that may exit to the Gigafactory since a minimum of 2019. “The Boring Firm is extraordinarily [in] constructing a Loop tunnel beneath I-80 out to the Tesla Gigafactory, however would wish NDOT’s assist,” reads a analysis report printed by the Nevada Division of Transportation seven years in the past.
Boring Firm’s strategy is novel, with small, single-lane tunnels made particularly for electrical automobiles, and the Elon Musk-founded startup has struggled for a few years to garner the political and regulatory assist wanted to undertake important transportation tasks. Even in Nevada, the place Boring Firm has efficiently opened a tunnel system and begun chauffeuring passengers in Teslas in Las Vegas, the corporate has accomplished solely 4 miles of operational tunnel and is at the moment experiencing delays because it tries to get crucial approvals to dig underneath land past the County and into the Metropolis of Las Vegas. The corporate can be reckoning with group blowback over security and environmental points throughout tunnel development.
The prospect of a Reno tunnel continues to be very conceptual, and whereas greater than 20 stakeholders—together with metropolis and county officers within the area—have been looped into conversations a few potential commuter rail alongside I-80, few of these events have but been roped into a possible Boring Co. venture, based on two individuals usually briefed on the progress of the rail research, together with Invoice Thomas, who runs the Regional Transportation Fee of Washoe County, the group that spearheaded the commuter rail research and highway research.
“We didn’t fee it. We’re not paying for it. I’m not concerned in it. However I perceive there are conversations exploring whether or not that could possibly be executed,” Thomas says, noting that, whereas he doesn’t perceive what the plan could be, he’s supportive of any transportation different that might assist alleviate visitors and cut back accidents alongside the Interstate. “If there’s a personal answer that helps the issue and improves security, so far as I’m involved, extra energy to them.”
Representatives for Tesla, Panasonic, EDAWN, and the Governor’s Workplace didn’t reply to requests for touch upon this story. Reilly declined to remark.
A visitors surge
Accidents and visitors have ramped up on I-80, which has two lanes going every path—notably for the reason that development of a number of information facilities this previous summer time as a part of Nevada’s push to attract extra AI firms to the state. There are some 22,000 workers who work on the Industrial Heart every day—70% of whom dwell in Reno or Sparks, Nev., based on a commuter rail research replace report from March 2025 that was seen by Fortune. Almost 8,000 of these individuals work for Tesla, and greater than 4,000 at Panasonic, based on a second replace report from October.
Whereas the state’s Division of Transportation is at the moment within the technique of widening the freeway, that growth won’t begin till the top of 2027 and can take just a few years to finish. Corporations within the Heart have requested the Governor’s Workplace assist them with different options, based on the emails. The variety of automobiles touring on stretches of the Interstate throughout peak rush hour doubled between January and July 2025, based on information pulled by the Nevada Division of Transportation that was shared with Tesla’s senior amenities supervisor and Reilly, the previous infrastructure director for Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo. “We’re in search of artistic methods to enhance the Waltham ramp,” a NDOT worker wrote to the Tesla supervisor and Reilly in an e-mail.
RTC Washoe, the regional transportation fee in Western Nevada, started prioritizing transportation alternate options for I-80 about two years in the past, based on Thomas. “At this time limit, there’s about [one accident] each different day,” Thomas says.
How efficient the Boring Co’s tunnels could be at relieving the congestion is unclear and will depend upon whether or not the tunnel is designed to perform as a mass transit system, with a fleet of shared, centrally operated automobiles that commuters hop out and in of, or whether or not people drive their very own vehicles by the tunnel. Boring Firm’s 4-mile Las Vegas Loop is ready to transport 1000’s of passengers per day throughout main conferences on the Conference Heart, however these automobiles are operated by devoted company-hired drivers. With people driving their very own vehicles in a tunnel, the potential for accidents and different snafus would doubtless improve and lift the chance of a extreme backlog in a single-lane tunnel.
Boring Firm’s involvement might also draw criticism from the general public—notably after the startup was fined for dumping wastewater in Las Vegas and after firefighters had been burned by chemical substances in a tunnel throughout a coaching drill. A Nevada Congresswoman just lately despatched a requirement letter to Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, requesting extra info on each incidents and requesting extra details about his Workplace’s involvement in Nevada OSHA rescinding citations it had issued to the Boring Firm final yr.
