• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Exclusive

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

An hour in the Oval Office with President Trump Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office for an hour. Tariffs, Intel, AI, Boeing, Iran—and the question every CEO eventually has to answer: who's next?

NewslettersTerm Sheet

Here’s what it’s like to dig tunnels at Elon Musk’s Boring Company

Jessica Mathews
By
Jessica Mathews
Jessica Mathews
Senior Writer
Down Arrow Button Icon
Jessica Mathews
By
Jessica Mathews
Jessica Mathews
Senior Writer
Down Arrow Button Icon
February 28, 2024, 7:00 AM ET
Photo collage of Elon Musk near The Boring Company tunnel and a tesla with clippings from OSHA documents regarding reported injuries at the construction sites.
At the Boring Company, pressure to meet lofty goals has led to a disregard for the safety of workers who are testing and building the tunnels underground and controlling dangerous equipment, according to findings from Fortune.Photo Illustration by Alexandra Scimecca for Fortune; Original Photos by Roger Kisby/Redux for Fortune (2); Getty Images; OSHA (3)

There are longstanding rivalries in the world of startups: growth versus discipline—innovation versus safety.

There may be few places where this tension is playing out so plainly as it is at Elon Musk’s Boring Company, the tunnel construction startup backed by Sequoia Capital and Vy Capital that is valued at more than $5.6 billion. Yesterday I published an investigation for Fortune, where I wrote about the dozens of injuries and safety complaints that have stacked up as Boring digs a tunnel system below Las Vegas. 

I spent several months talking to the workers on the ground who have been tasked with turning Musk’s ambitious underground transit system vision into reality. Boring’s former safety manager, Wayne Merideth, described the working conditions as “almost unbearable.” Thousands of pages from an OSHA investigation from this summer showed workers suffering from heat exhaustion, knee or head contusions, or an elbow or hand being crushed. Former Boring employees described getting chemical burns as they waded or walked through a cement mixture that pooled with water in the base of the tunnels. OSHA ultimately issued Boring eight citations, finding some of its working conditions to be potentially fatal to employees and that Boring didn’t provide its employees with the proper safety equipment, training, and washing stations to protect themselves. (Boring ignored my requests for comment, though it vehemently denied OSHA’s findings in communications with the agency and is contesting them. Sequoia declined to comment, and other investors didn’t respond.)

Here’s what one employee documented in an emailed complaint to Merideth:

“I feel that the company as a whole has been very fortunate these past few months that there hasn’t been a fatality,” the employee from the Bastrop, Texas, worksite wrote at 1:53 a.m. in the email, which was seen by Fortune. “We have consistently flirted with death.”

The employee told Merideth in the email that, just recently, six of 12 passive articulation cylinders—the parts of the machine that would help Boring’s tunneling machine turn as it digs through the earth—failed while he was inside it, meaning that it “could have split with me inside it.” No one had warned him, he said. The employee wrote about a lack of accountability, and that he had “lost all confidence” in the company’s management to keep him safe.

“I have watched my friends get injured due to the fast pace we’ve been running,” he wrote. “I refuse to be the first fatality in this company’s history. No tunnel is worth a single person’s life.”

Long hours and weekends, high expectations, and rigid deadlines are hallmarks of Elon Musk’s companies: Tesla, SpaceX, and X, formerly Twitter. And construction is inherently one of the most dangerous industries in America.

But in the case of Boring, run by president Steve Davis, pressure to meet aggressive goals led to a disregard for the safety of workers who were testing and building the tunnels underground and controlling dangerous equipment, according to findings from Fortune. All of this raises an important question: Innovation at what cost?

You can read the full story here.

See you tomorrow,

Jessica Mathews
Twitter: @jessicakmathews
Email: jessica.mathews@fortune.com
Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here.

Joe Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.

VENTURE DEALS

- Glean, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based AI-powered work assistant, raised $200 million in Series D funding. Kleiner Perkins and Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round and were joined by Sequoia Capital, Coatue, ICONIQ Growth, IVP, Capital One Ventures, and others. 

- Oishii, a Jersey City, N.J.-based vertical strawberry and tomato farm, raised $134 million in Series B funding. NTT led the round and was joined by Bloom8, McWin Capital Partners, Mizuho Bank, and others. 

- Exodigo, a Tel Aviv, Israel and Palo Alto, Calif.-based developer of AI-powered underground mapping technology, raised $105 million in Series A funding. Greenfield Partners and Zeev Ventures led the round and were joined by existing investors SquarePeg, 10D VC, JIBE, and National Grid Partners.

- Unseenlabs, a Rennes, France-based developer of radio frequency data designed for maritime surveillance, raised €85 million ($92.2 million) in Series C funding. Supernova Invest, ISALT, and UNEXO led the round and was joined by 360 Capital, OMNES, Bpifrance, and others. 

- HALO, a Dublin, Ireland-based provider of subscription-based bodycam and digital asset management services, raised $20 million in Series A funding from Volition Capital. 

- Tracksuit, an Auckland, New Zealand-based brand tracking platform for marketing teams, raised $13.5 million in Series A funding. Altos Ventures and Footwork led the round and were joined by existing investors Blackbird, Icehouse Ventures, Ascential, Shasta Ventures, and others.

- Parspec, a San Mateo, Calif.-based AI-powered software platform designed to streamline the selection and sale of construction products, raised $11.5 million in seed funding. Innovation Endeavors led the round and was joined by Building Ventures, Heartland Ventures, and Hometeam Ventures. 

- Validation Cloud, a Zug, Switzerland-based Web3 data streaming and infrastructure company, raised $5.8 million in funding. Cadenza Ventures led the round and was joined by Blockchain Founders Fund, Bloccelerate, Blockwall, Side Door Ventures, Metamatic, GS Futures, and AP Capital.

- Axiom Cloud, a San Jose, Calif.-based developer of refrigeration management software designed to reduce energy usage and costs, raised $5 million in funding from Toshiba Tec and Windsail Capital Group.

- Choice, a Prague, Czech Republic-based subscription platform where restaurants can create websites, menus with QR codes, table reservations, and other tools, raised $2.5 million in funding. J&T Ventures led the round and was joined by Reflex Capital and Presto Ventures.

- BuildBear Labs, a Singapore-based testing and validation platform for developers creating secure decentralized applications, raised $1.9 million in funding. Superscrypt, Tribe Capital, and 1kx led the round and were joined by Iterative, Plug-N-Play, and angel investors. 

- KLIQ, a Miami, Fla.-based no-code business infrastructure platform designed for creators to build their own branded apps, raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding. Serena Ventures led the round and was joined by angel investors.

- Roga, a Toronto, Canada and Los Angeles, Calif.-based developer of a wearable device  designed to relieve stress and mental symptoms, raised $1 million in pre-seed funding from Exceptional Ventures, Minded Ventures, the Angelist Fund, and others. 

PRIVATE EQUITY

- Octopus Deploy, backed by Insight Partners, acquired Codefresh, a Mountain View, Calif.-based DevOps management platform, for $28 million.

- Bridgenext, backed by Kelso & Company, acquired Folcode, a San Juan, Argentina-based digital engineering services company. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- CST Industries, a portfolio company of Solace Capital, acquired Ostsee Tank Solutions GmbH, a Stralsund, Germany-based manufacturer of storage tank parts and covers. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

- Hunter Point Capital acquired a minority stake in Pretium, a New York City-based specialized investment firm. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

- Nordic Capital agreed to acquire a majority stake in ActiveViam, a New York City-based provider of risk analytics, regulatory compliance software, and other solutions for financial institutions.

OTHER

- Cox Enterprises acquired OpenGov, a San Francisco-based provider of cloud software for public sector agencies and governments, for $1.8 billion. 

- Veradigm (NASDAQ: MDRX) agreed to acquire ScienceIO, a New York City-based AI tool designed to turn health care data into insights , for $140 million in cash.

FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS

- EQT, a Stockholm, Sweden-based private equity firm, raised €22 billion ($23.9 billion) for its tenth fund focused on companies in the health care, technology, and tech-enabled services sectors.

- Renovus Capital Partners, a Wayne, Pa.-based private equity firm, raised $325 million for their first continuation fund to recapitalize four of their existing portfolio companies. 

- Zacua Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture capital fund, raised $56 million for its first fund focused on construction tech companies. 

PEOPLE

- Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG), a Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm, hired Jeff Currie as chief strategy officer of energy pathways. Formerly, he was with Goldman Sachs.

- Rotunda Capital Partners, a Washington, D.C. and Chicago, Ill.-based private equity firm, promoted Ryan Aprill to managing director and Alex Gebert to vice president.

This is the web version of Term Sheet, a daily newsletter on the biggest deals and dealmakers in venture capital and private equity. Sign up for free.

About the Author
Jessica Mathews
By Jessica MathewsSenior Writer
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Jessica Mathews is a senior writer for Fortune covering transportation, defense tech, and Elon Musk’s companies.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Newsletters

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Newsletters

US President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick looks on.
NewslettersCFO Daily
Trump’s new corporate playbook: Why the administration is taking equity stakes in companies like Intel
By Sheryl EstradaMay 18, 2026
3 hours ago
A panel on Gen Z workers sit alongside Fortune's Kristin Stoller at the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit.
NewslettersFortune Workplace Innovation
AI in the workplace is stumbling. Fortune’s Workplace Innovation Summit will dive in to why
By Kristin StollerMay 18, 2026
3 hours ago
Wallet makers are the quiet backbone of the crypto industry. Now they want to be banks
NewslettersFortune Crypto
Wallet makers are the quiet backbone of the crypto industry. Now they want to be banks
By Jeff John RobertsMay 18, 2026
4 hours ago
Trump’s leadership model has a succession problem
C-SuiteNext to Lead
Trump’s leadership model has a succession problem
By Ruth UmohMay 18, 2026
5 hours ago
Inside Trump’s vision of America as a shareholder in U.S. companies: ‘I should have asked for more’
NewslettersCEO Daily
Inside Trump’s vision of America as a shareholder in U.S. companies: ‘I should have asked for more’
By Diane BradyMay 18, 2026
6 hours ago
SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell in Barcelona, Spain on March 2, 2026. (Photo: Angel Garcia/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
NewslettersFortune Tech
What to expect from a SpaceX IPO
By Andrew NuscaMay 18, 2026
6 hours ago

Most Popular

Microsoft AI chief gives it 18 months—for all white-collar work to be automated by AI
AI
Microsoft AI chief gives it 18 months—for all white-collar work to be automated by AI
By Jake AngeloMay 16, 2026
2 days ago
The top foreign holders of U.S. debt may soon dump Treasury bonds and bring their money back home, potentially spiking borrowing costs
Economy
The top foreign holders of U.S. debt may soon dump Treasury bonds and bring their money back home, potentially spiking borrowing costs
By Jason MaMay 17, 2026
22 hours ago
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
Politics
The Bezos family just donated $100 million to help achieve one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s top campaign promises
By Jake AngeloMay 12, 2026
6 days ago
'No one was coming to save me': How Reese Witherspoon built a $900 million company from a problem Hollywood wouldn't fix
Success
'No one was coming to save me': How Reese Witherspoon built a $900 million company from a problem Hollywood wouldn't fix
By Sydney LakeMay 17, 2026
1 day ago
SpaceX heads into a record-shattering IPO with the 'deepest moat that exists today' as investors vow to 'never bet against Elon'
Innovation
SpaceX heads into a record-shattering IPO with the 'deepest moat that exists today' as investors vow to 'never bet against Elon'
By Jason MaMay 16, 2026
2 days ago
Gen X is the most indebted generation in America. Their employers can fix that
Commentary
Gen X is the most indebted generation in America. Their employers can fix that
By Mary MorelandMay 17, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.