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# Why Is Dubai Betting Billions on Tunnels?
- URL: https://www.theinvestorsociety.com/why-is-dubai-betting-billions-on-tunnels/
- Published: 2026-09-14T13:14:10.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T13:14:10.000Z
- Author: Jose Kont
- Tags: The Daily Dealflow

Hi, and welcome to a new edition of [The Daily Dealflow](https://www.theinvestorsociety.com/tag/the-daily-dealflow/) — the 5-minute briefing that gives you clear context on capital flows and market-moving trends across the Americas, from Silicon Valley to Buenos Aires. Let's dive in.

## 🏆 Deal of the Day

The Boring Company, Elon Musk's tunneling infrastructure startup, raised $3B in a Series D round led by the United Arab Emirates, valuing the company at $23B and unlocking plans to dig more than 150 kilometers (93 miles) of tunnels across the country. Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Vy Capital and Valor Equity Partners also joined the round – [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/10/the-boring-company-raises-3b-in-round-led-by-uae/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

**Why This?:** It's a example of sovereign capital reshaping American infrastructure ambitions — a Gulf government is now the anchor backer of a US tunneling company whose furthest-along project, the Vegas Loop, still spans under four of a planned 68 miles.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/72/4072b0a5-dd13-4755-b3a4-f7b56403df30/content/images/2026/09/GettyImages-1311710604.webp)

****Image Credits:** Ethan Miller / Getty Images

**Positive Context:**

- The round roughly quadruples Boring's 2022 valuation of $5.7B in under four years, and pulls in blue-chip repeat backers Sequoia and a16z alongside the UAE, proof that even famously slow-moving tunneling bets can still command venture-scale premiums once a sovereign wants in.
- Nashville's Music City Loop is reportedly on track for a Q4 2026 operational launch, giving Boring a second live project to point to beyond Las Vegas as it takes its pitch to the Gulf.

**Yes, but:**

- Boring's track record is thin: seven years in, only the sub-4-mile Vegas Loop is operational against an originally planned 68 miles, and projects in Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles and Ontario have all been abandoned or rejected — most recently by Baltimore's own mayor.
- Nashville contractors have reported months-long payment delays and OSHA complaints over toxic-material exposure, raising questions about whether Boring's execution can scale as fast as its valuation has.

**Zoom in:** Per the Wall Street Journal, Boring's new investors didn't just write a check — they signed on to actively help recruit new tunnel deals and lobby local officials on the company's behalf, with buyback rights against them if they don't deliver, an unusually hands-on term for a venture round this size.

**The comment:* *"It is not something that I would have approved,"* said Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, on his city's rejected Boring Company tunnel proposal, per* [*Inc.*](https://www.inc.com/moses-jeanfrancois/boring-company-now-worth-23-billion-dollars-failed-tunnel-plan-labor-dispute-reveal-risks/91403554?ref=theinvestorsociety.com)*.*

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/72/4072b0a5-dd13-4755-b3a4-f7b56403df30/content/images/2026/09/elon-musk-boring-company-valuation-inc.webp)

Elon Musk. Photos: Getty Images; Adobe Stock

## 💰 Venture Capital

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**Positron AI (US)** – US$875M, Series C, AI-inference chipmaker building memory-heavy hardware as an alternative to Nvidia. Thomas Sohmers and Mitesh Agrawal lead the Reno startup; NEA, Atreides, Valor, QIA and Jim Clark joined. Its Atlas systems already occupy 50+ Oracle Cloud racks – [The Investor Society.](https://www.theinvestorsociety.com/positron-ai-raises-us-875m-at-us-5b-valuation-to-scale-ai-inference-chips/)

**Mach Industries (US)** – $600M, Series C extension, defense-tech manufacturer of unmanned military vehicles, VTOL drones and counter-drone systems out of a 115,000-square-foot Huntington Beach facility. Founder and CEO Ethan Thornton, a 22-year-old MIT dropout, saw the round led by Ribbit Capital, Infinite Capital and Bedrock Capital — with Sequoia joining too, marking the firm's first-ever defense-tech investment. The new money more than doubles Mach's valuation to $3.7B in just three months, helped along by a recent $50M acquisition of solid-rocket-motor maker Exquadrum that spun up a new "Mach Energetics" division – [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/10/defense-tech-mach-industries-doubles-valuation-to-3-7b-in-3-months/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

**Kapital (Mexico)** – $125M, Series C extension, AI-powered banking platform that turns invoice and transaction data into automated lending decisions for cross-border businesses. Founded by René Saúl and Fernando Sandoval, the round was led by Tru Arrow Partners alongside Pelion Ventures, Tribe Capital and Cervin Ventures, with Fasanara Capital providing debt — valuing the newly minted unicorn at $2B. Kapital's credit portfolio grew more than 220% in the first half of 2026 alone, and the fresh capital will fund its push into the US and Europe – [LatamRepublic](https://www.latamrepublic.com/kapital-raises-us-125-million-to-accelerate-ai-powered-financial-expansion/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

**Intermezzo (US)** – $10M, funding round, global payroll infrastructure company whose AI agents automate real-time gross-to-net calculations, tax filing and payslip generation for HCM and payroll firms via a white-label API. Founded by CEO Siddharth Ram and CTO Kumar Ramanathan, the Menlo Park startup's round was led by Crosslink Capital, with UKG Ventures, CloudPay and Character Capital also participating — a bet that even the most boring back-office function in HR still has room for an AI-agent makeover – [FinSMEs](https://www.finsmes.com/2026/09/intermezzo-raises-10m-in-funding.html?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/72/4072b0a5-dd13-4755-b3a4-f7b56403df30/content/images/2026/09/top-10-vc-rounds-bay-area-aug-2026.png)

The Bay's ten largest venture rounds of August 2026.

## 🏛️ Private Equity

**Flow Control Holdings (US)** – Undisclosed buyout, engineered liquid-cooling components supplier acquired by Blackstone from Audax, which keeps a minority stake. CEO Scott Kerns’ company makes the plumbing behind AI racks that can consume 135 kW—far beyond old-school air cooling’s comfort zone – [The Investor Society](https://www.theinvestorsociety.com/blackstone-to-acquire-flow-control-holdings-as-ai-drives-liquid-cooling-demand/).

**Miro (US)** – $1.36B, acquisition, Italian software roll-up Bending Spoons is buying the AI-powered whiteboarding and collaboration platform in an all-cash deal that values Miro at barely 8% of its $17.5B peak 2021 valuation. Miro still runs profitably on $600M in annual recurring revenue and $435M of net cash, serving 4 million paying users — proof that even a fundamentally healthy SaaS business can get repriced hard once the pandemic-era multiple hangover fully wears off. It's Bending Spoons' second such trophy purchase this year, following its acquisition of Airtable (once valued at $11B) for $1.28B – [TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/10/bending-spoons-to-buy-collaboration-tools-maker-miro-for-1-36b-90-less-than-its-2022-valuation/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

**ACV (US)** – $1.9B, acquisition, Copart's all-cash tender offer for the digital vehicle-auction and inspection-data platform pays a 45% premium to ACV's unaffected share price and stitches together the entire used-car lifecycle — from dealer trade-ins to salvage disposition — under one roof. The deal is expected to be neutral to Copart's earnings in year one and accretive by fiscal 2028, a reminder that in vehicle remarketing, owning the data pipeline is now as valuable as owning the auction lot itself – [BusinessWire](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260910881782/en/Copart-to-Acquire-ACV-Expanding-Position-Across-the-Vehicle-Remarketing-Ecosystem?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

**Terranum portfolio (Colombia)** – approximately $700M (COP 2.18 trillion), acquisition, Colombian real estate fund Pei is buying Terranum's Connecta and Cortezza office complexes in Bogotá and Medellín at a steep 26% discount to their independent valuation, reflecting lower occupancy and undeveloped land inside the portfolio. Pei is financing the deal through assumed debt, cash reserves, an asset sale and a new securities issuance — and still needs investor-assembly approval, with an 80% quorum required, before the deal can close in November – [Valora Analitik](https://www.valoraanalitik.com/operacion-pei-activos-terranum-connecta/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

**Tazapay (US)** – $400M, all-stock acquisition, stablecoin issuer Circle (NYSE: CRCL) is buying the cross-border payments and escrow firm to instantly plug into roughly 100 payout markets rather than build the rails itself — one of Circle's largest deals to date. It's a sign of where the stablecoin land-grab goes next: owning the last-mile payout infrastructure that turns a digital dollar into cash someone can actually spend – [CoinDesk](https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/09/08/circle-agrees-to-buy-cross-border-payments-firm-tazapay-for-usd400-million?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

## 📈 Public & Capital Markets

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/72/4072b0a5-dd13-4755-b3a4-f7b56403df30/content/images/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-14-at-7.07.53---AM.png)

Opening Market Figures, Mon 14 Sep 2026.

**US equity markets (US)** – broad market move, the S&P 500 jumped 1.06% and the Dow 1.15% after August CPI data landed in line with forecasts, even as the odds of a Federal Reserve rate hike this month climbed to 85.6% and oil prices retreated more than 3% off their earlier highs — with AI-server demand sending Hewlett Packard Enterprise up 11.6% and Dell up 10% after RBC initiated bullish coverage, macro/technology hardware industry – [TheStreet](https://www.thestreet.com/stock-market-today/stock-market-today-dow-jones-sp-500-nasdaq-updates-sept-11-2026?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

**Oracle (US, NYSE: ORCL)** – Q1 FY2027 earnings, the enterprise-software pioneer posted adjusted EPS of $1.92 against $1.74 expected and revenue of $19.35B, but the real story was cloud infrastructure revenue rocketing 121% year-over-year to $7.4B while the rest of the business grew just 3%. Oracle's backlog now stands at a staggering $664B — with nearly half tied to a single OpenAI contract — even as the stock remains down 22% year-to-date on lingering worries about AI-spending concentration risk, enterprise software/cloud industry – [SiliconANGLE](https://siliconangle.com/2026/09/10/oracles-stock-moves-higher-on-surging-cloud-infrastructure-revenue-growth/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

**SpaceX (US, Nasdaq: SPCX)** – equity move, the rocket company signed a new $1.11B-a-month AI compute contract worth roughly $13.3B annualized, layering on top of existing deals with Alphabet and Anthropic, with CFO Bret Johnsen reaffirming "even more conviction" in a $100B annual-revenue target by year-end. It's a reminder of just how thoroughly the AI-infrastructure boom has reshaped even a company built to fly to Mars, aerospace/AI infrastructure industry – [Benzinga](https://www.benzinga.com/markets/tech/26/09/61731919/spacex-closes-1-11-billion-a-month-compute-deal-as-cfo-doubles-down-on-100-billion-arr-target?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

**Adobe (US, Nasdaq: ADBE)** – Q3 FY2026 earnings and CEO transition, the Photoshop and PDF maker posted record revenue of $6.76B (+13%) and non-GAAP EPS of $6.13, crossed 1 billion monthly active users and raised full-year guidance — yet shares still fell more than 4% after-hours on investor worries about AI-monetization timing. The bigger news: Shantanu Narayen is stepping down as CEO after 29 years, handing the reins to Anil Chakravarthy effective December 1, software industry – [qz.com](https://qz.com/adobe-earnings-billion-monthly-active-users-raised-outlook-091126?ref=theinvestorsociety.com).

## 📅 ICYMI

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/40/72/4072b0a5-dd13-4755-b3a4-f7b56403df30/content/images/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-14-at-7.11.12---AM.png)

[Empty designer boxes are having a moment:](https://thehustle.co/news/one-mans-designer-trash-is-another-mans-side-hustle?ref=theinvestorsociety.com) eBay lists more than 180,000 results for "empty box," and some Rolex and Omega cases now resell for over $3,000, as resellers, counterfeiters and image-conscious influencers all compete to make secondhand luxury look — or actually be — real.

Wall Street's latest product blurs investing and gambling: [Kalshi won CFTC approval](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/10/kalshi-launches-perps-for-gold-and-silver-following-cftc-approval-expanding-futures-offerings.html?ref=theinvestorsociety.com) to offer perpetual futures tied to gold and silver, while Nasdaq poured $100M into crypto exchange Kraken to launch tokenized stocks — a trend already drawing backlash from at least one public-company CEO who'd rather not see his stock traded like a casino chip.

A Delaware startup called [FlyApp](https://www.flyapp.world/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com) is auctioning off empty-leg private jet flights in real time, letting bargain hunters bid down the seats that would otherwise fly empty — proof that even the ultra-luxury flying market has room for a Priceline moment.  
  
*See you tomorrow,*

[***Jose Kont***](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-kont/?ref=theinvestorsociety.com)  
*The human behind The Investor Society.*