When Richard Branson threw his weight behind Hyperloop One in 2017, the world took discover. The billionaire’s Virgin Group invested within the transportation startup, which promised to zip passengers and cargo between cities at aviation speeds by tubes. Later, Branson even grew to become chairman of Virgin Hyperloop, because it was rebranded for a time.
“The reason I became chairman of this company, I found this ridiculously exciting,” Branson told CNBC in 2018. “I think if we can build Virgin Hyperloops in a number of different countries, connecting countries, that will bring the world much closer.”
“When you’re talking about the pods going at 6, 7, 800 miles an hour, both with people and cargo, that’s tremendously exciting,” he added.
Josh Giegel, a Hyperloop cofounder after which CTO, later gushed about the “kind of credibility” that Branson and firm delivered, calling it a “sign we’re doing something right.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk wasn’t concerned within the firm, however a yr earlier than its founding in 2014 he had pitched the hyperloop idea, urging entrepreneurs to make it a actuality. According to his biographer Ashlee Vance, the concept originated out of Musk’s “hatred for California’s proposed high-speed rail system.”
Earlier this month, the Biden administation announced billions in funding for high-speed rail tasks throughout the Golden State, a part of “$8.2 billion in new funding for 10 major passenger rail projects across the country.”
And this week, Bloomberg reported that Hyperloop One—which has raised greater than $450 million since 2014—is shutting down.
Indicators of hassle had been constructing. Final yr, the enterprise, which by no means gained a contract to truly construct a hyperloop, determined to give attention to cargo relatively than passengers, and Virgin pulled its title.
A lot of the firm’s staff, of which there greater than 200 final yr, have been laid off, and its Los Angeles workplace has been closed.
Branson mentioned in 2017 in a press release about Virgin’s funding: “After visiting Hyperloop One’s test site in Nevada and meeting its leadership team this past summer, I am convinced this groundbreaking technology will change transportation as we know it and dramatically cut journey times.”
And he assured CNBC viewers the next yr that precise working hyperloops had been nearing actuality. “We’re talking about two to three years away, not many years away,” he mentioned.
Now the corporate is making an attempt to promote numerous belongings, and its remaining staff have been instructed their employment ends Dec. 31.
