• Although the Hyperloop is most commonly associated with SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, he only announced the original whitepaper describing the idea. The actual development is being pushed by a group called Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, which has 400 part-time workers working on it in exchange for equity.
  • HTT will work with Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum, a publicly traded firm which describes itself as a leading vacuum manufacturer which has contributed work to the Large Hadron Collider -- a solid partner, considering the idea behind Hyperloop is that low-pressure vacuum tubes could enable high-speed transport. Aecom, the engineering firm, is number 322 on the Fortune 500 list, so it's legit too. Both firms will take stock in the HTT project in exchange for expertise.
  • The takeaway isn't that you'll be able to take a tube from LA to San Francisco anytime soon. Most of HTT's workers right now are part time. But the project is taking solid steps to prototype a working Hyperloop, which wasn't assured when Musk first revealed his plans.

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