Hyperloop One is closing: the company has laid off staff and is selling assets
Hyperloop One, a company that aimed to create high-speed lines of communication in vacuum tubes, is closing. This was reported by people familiar with the situation, according to Bloomberg.
One of the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the company had laid off most of its employees and was trying to sell assets, including a test line and equipment.
At the beginning of 2022, the company employed more than 200 people. Now it has closed its office in Los Angeles. The remaining employees who were tasked with overseeing the sale of the assets were informed that their work would end on December 31.
The rest of the startup’s intellectual property will be transferred to the DP World conglomerate, which began supporting Hyperloop One in 2016 and owns a controlling stake in it.
The company has been attracting public attention since its founding in 2014. According to PitchBook, the startup has managed to raise more than $450 million since then. Hyperloop One has built a test line near Las Vegas to develop its transportation technology.
For some time, the company was called Virgin Hyperloop One, after Richard Branson’s Virgin invested in it. However, later it changed its focus and focused on cargo transportation and reverted to the old name.
In the end, the company never built a single Hyperloop. However, the concept continues to fascinate entrepreneurs. Several companies engaged in similar developments are at different stages of prototyping. Among them are Hardt Hyperloop, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc. and Swisspod Technologies.