Hyperloop passenger capsule version cutaway with passengers onboard. [Photo/IC]

Early applications could center around ports - possibly replacing the trucks and trains that carry cargo from ships to factories and stores.

Executives in Hyperloop One, formerly known as Hyperloop Technologies, include Shervin Pishevar, a venture capitalist well known for his investments in innovative companies like Uber and Airbnb, and Brogan BamBrogan, a former SpaceX engineer.

New investors include 137 Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Fast Digital, Western Technology Investment (WTI), SNCF, the French National Rail Company, a force behind high speed rail in Europe, and GE Ventures.

BamBrogan said the company's engineering team is focused on finding efficiencies to reduce the cost of building a hyperloop.

"We want to deliver all the value that hyperloop can deliver - the safe, the efficient, the on demand, the fast. But, we want to deliver it at a cost basis that is absolutely transformative," he said.

Hyperloop One has competition in the space, including Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, a crowdsourced company that last month signed an agreement with the Slovakian government to build a hyperloop connecting Slovenia with Austria and Hungary.