In news that will probably be greeted with "well, duh," Saudi Arabia's incredibly ambitious plan to transform its country with the Neom gigaproject is costing more than expected. It's the scale that's shocking, however, with a new report from the Wall Street Journal detailing how the money being spent is spiraling to an astronomical amount.
The WSJ report covers the entire Neom project, but focuses on its best-known section, the 170-km (105-mile)-long skyscraper city, the Line. It follows concerns raised by a similar
Bloomberg report in 2024, which revealed that costs were getting out of hand. Neom's CEO also unexpectedly stepped down recently and there have been numerous credible reports of human rights abuses.
The WSJ alleges that executives have been accused of fudging the numbers to hide the true cost of the project. The figures are astonishing: the first phase alone is expected to cost US$370 billion, while the ultimate completion date and budget are now estimated as 2080 and $8.8 trillion, respectively. Big numbers such as these tend to become a bit abstract but to put it into perspective, that's around 25 year's worth of Saudi Arabia's current annual budget.
Another issue raised by the WSJ is the opening of Sindalah, which it says remains unfinished and over-budget. The report also says Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud himself, who is the driving force behind Neom, is to blame for some of the rising costs – noting that his preferences and whims are causing additional headaches. For example, the Line would be a lot easier to realize if it was a little less tall, but the prince refuses to budge on his vision. Similarly, the Line will feature an impractical-sounding empty glass building hanging upside-down from a steel bridge. This was designed by a Marvel film designer, who was brought in because staff knew the prince liked the movies.
Really though, the biggest issue is likely a more fundamental one than any one person or alleged sketchy accounting practices: it's simply extremely difficult and expensive to build huge infrastructure like supertall skyscraper cities in remote desert areas.
So is Neom in trouble? Not yet. It's worth pointing out that any project this big was bound to run into issues and Saudi Arabia still has a mountain of cash it can use if required. We should also note that a Neom spokesperson has accused the WSJ of incorrectly interpreting and misrepresenting its figures.
Indeed, it's easy get lost in the deluge of information and rumors, but even the scaled-back version of Neom is insanely ambitious: the first phase of the Line is currently under construction and it will have a length of 2.4 km (1.5 miles), as well as a height of 500 m (1,640 ft). It will feature a mirrored exterior and will serve as home to 200,000 residents. It will also be topped by a rooftop stadium and is slated to be ready by 2030, in time for the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament being held there four years later.
The tourism and wellness areas like the Treyam and Epicon are still due to be completed during the same timeframe too, while elsewhere in Saudi Arabia – albeit not under the Neom umbrella – there are the Mukaab and JEC Tower, both of which are due to be completed at the same time. One thing's for sure, by 2030 Saudi Arabia is going to look like a very different place, even if its piggybank will be a little lighter.
Source: Neom
