The Kremlin just pitched Elon Musk an $8 billion undersea tunnel connecting Russia to Alaska, and President Trump says he'll "think about it." Russian investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev floated the ambitious Bering Strait project on X, claiming Musk's Boring Company could slash traditional $65 billion costs down to $8 billion and finish in eight years.
The Kremlin just threw Elon Musk a curveball that could redefine geopolitical infrastructure - and Trump's already intrigued. Russian investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev pitched the Tesla CEO on building a $8 billion undersea rail tunnel connecting Russia to Alaska through the Bering Strait, claiming the Boring Company could slash traditional costs from $65 billion and finish the 70-mile project in eight years.
"That's an interesting one," Trump told reporters Friday when asked about the tunnel proposal. "We'll have to think about that. I hadn't heard that." The comment came just one day after Trump's call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, where they discussed Ukraine resolution plans and set up a future summit in Budapest.
Dmitriev, who heads Russia's sovereign wealth fund, made the pitch directly on Musk's X platform, calling it "a 70-mile link symbolizing unity" that Moscow would help fund. "Let's build a future together!" he wrote, targeting Musk's company specifically for its tunneling technology and cost-cutting potential.
But here's where reality hits hard. The Boring Company has zero experience with the brutal conditions this project would demand - below-freezing temperatures, no existing infrastructure, and a seismically active region prone to deep earthquakes. Every tunnel the company's completed so far has been in hot, dry locations with plenty of nearby infrastructure and services.
The timing couldn't be more loaded with complications. Tesla already has supply chain ties to Russia through aluminum purchases from Rusal, a company founded by sanctioned oligarch Oleg Deripaska. The Wall Street Journal reported that Musk held secret talks with Putin in 2022, including pressure to withhold SpaceX's Starlink service from Taiwan as a favor to China's Xi Jinping.
Musk's track record on ambitious infrastructure promises also raises questions. The Boring Company was recently fined by Nevada environmental regulators for what ProPublica called an "extraordinary number of violations," including digging without approval and spilling waste onto city streets. Its current Nashville airport tunnel project, dubbed the Music City Loop, has faced resident protests over lack of planning in the flood-prone city.
