DP World's investment - the exact amount was not disclosed - is part of $50m Hyperloop One raised last week in preparation for a full-scale test of the system in the first quarter of next year.
Also joining the Hyperloop One board is the Russian billionaire Ziyavudin Magomedov, whose investment company Summa Group has also put money into the start-up.
In August, DP World launched a feasibility study into using a Hyperloop to move containers from ships docked at its flagship Jebel Ali Port to a new inland depot in Dubai.
The Hyperloop concept, proposed by Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk in 2013, sees capsules, carrying people or freight, hurtling through tubes kept in a partial vacuum at speeds approaching 700mph.
