Elon Musk's Tunnel Construction Firm The Boring Company Set To Expand To China

The Boring Company, which builds underground transportation tunnels for hyperloop transportation systems, is set to launch in China in August, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk tweeted Saturday.

Musk will announce the company's China unit while in Shanghai during the World Artificial Intelligence Conference from Aug. 29 to 31.

Last month, the company announced its first commercial contract in Las Vegas, where the firm will build a $48.7 million people mover for the city that will be constructed by 2021.

The company promotes underground tunnels in order to alleviate congestion in major cities, such as New York. The firm claims that so far, tunnels have not been seen as a viable form of transportation due to high costs, sometimes costing as much as $1 billion per mile of tunnel.

In December, Musk opened the Boring Test Tunnel in Hawthorne, California, which cost $10 million and is used for research and development.

The company experiments with two types of tunnel systems. The Loop system features autonomous self-driving cars that ferry passengers from location to location. The Hyperloop shuttles passengers in pods that could reach a possible 600 mph, and requires a system to eliminate air friction inside the tunnel.