Saudi Arabia has officially slammed the brakes on its most ambitious project ever. The Line—the 170km mirrored megacity that was supposed to revolutionize urban living—is being gutted.
The project is now a shadow of its former self. What was meant to be a 170km stretch of 500-meter-tall skyscrapers slicing through the desert has been scaled back to just a few miles. The original plan promised homes for 9 million people. Now officials are talking about something “far smaller.”
Money talks. Oil prices have tanked, and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is bleeding cash. One official admitted they “spent too much” and “rushed at 100 miles an hour.” The kingdom is now running deficits and needs to reprioritize.
This isn’t just about The Line. The entire NEOM project is getting a massive downgrade. Trojena—the ski resort meant to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games—has lost the event. Even the CEO got sacked in November after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly lost patience with the delays.
The new plan? Turn the site into a data center hub. The location on the Red Sea coast is perfect for cooling servers with seawater. It’s a practical pivot, but a far cry from the flying taxis and robot butlers promised in the glossy promo videos.
About $50 billion has already been sunk into the project. An internal audit found “deliberate manipulation” of finances by management. The final price tag was estimated at $8.8 trillion—more than 25 times Saudi Arabia’s annual budget.
The Crown Prince hasn’t fully killed the dream. He said he won’t hesitate to make “radical amendments” if needed. But the sci-fi city everyone was talking about? That vision is dead. What’s left is a server farm with a nice view.
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