What was once hailed as the crown jewel of Saudi Arabia’s “Vision 2030” is now unraveling under the weight of fantasy and financial failure. NEOM, the ultra-futuristic city championed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), has reportedly devolved into a $50 billion construction graveyard, according to a damning exposé by the Financial Times.
NEOM’s centerpiece—“The Line”—was envisioned as a 100-mile mirrored skyscraper laid on its side, containing an indoor marina, a stadium overlooking a harbor, and vertical housing for millions. The concept captured global attention with Marvel-style animations and audacious promises. But eight years later, reality has crushed the dream. Construction has barely progressed, international investors have walked away, and top insiders are quietly bracing to break the news to MBS: NEOM, as imagined, is unbuildable.
The problems are staggering. Designs like a “chandelier skyscraper” dangling from a massive arch proved technically impossible. Basic infrastructure, like sewage systems, was overlooked—leading to bizarre fixes like a massive shuttle network to manage human waste. Other essentials, like runway construction, have stalled because engineers forgot to account for mountains.
Even more damning: the revised first phase of the project has been slashed from 20 “modules” to just three—too small to attract serious investment. The global supply of cement and steel is nowhere near enough to complete the original design. One insider bluntly called the project “uninvestable.”
Saudi Arabia, now running budget deficits, is shifting its focus toward AI and modest tech ventures with clearer returns. With the price of oil failing to meet expectations, the funding once promised to fuel MBS’s grand ambitions is drying up.
What remains is a half-finished mega-city, vacant runways, displaced tribal villages, jailed protestors, and growing doubts about whether NEOM was ever more than a high-gloss pipe dream.
