Why Elon Musk's Hyperloop may be built overseas before it comes to the US

When Musk first proposed his Hyperloop idea in 2013, he called for it to be built between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

But his futuristic tube travel vision will likely be built far from California first.

While a few US companies are currently working on building smaller-scale Hyperloop systems, a track that stretches hundreds of miles and can reach supersonic speeds is more likely to take off first in a developing country in Asia or Africa before the US or Europe, experts tell Business Insider.

“We are more likely to see the emergence of a Hyperloop or some other kind of next generation technology for transportation coming up in places that don't have a deeply embedded transportation network,” said Jamais Cascio, a fellow at the Institute for the Future.

“The question becomes what are the economics of building out something like the Hyperloop system, will they be better than continuing to use aircraft? My gut sense is it is going to be easier to come up with an energy efficient aircraft than a way of building out an entirely new network cheaply,” he added.

Dirk Ahlborn, the CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), which is one of the US-based companies working on the technology, told Business Insider that even though his company will begin building a five-mile track just outside of Los Angeles, Calif. next year, he will likely grow his business overseas.

Several cities in the Middle East have already expressed interest in being one of the first to get a large Hyperloop system and it’s possible a project in this region could begin as early as 2016, Ahlborn said.