Ahmed used to joke with his wife that he was building a city on Mars. Every morning at 5 AM, he’d climb into the company bus with dozens of other engineers, architects, and project managers, heading out to what felt like the edge of the world. The Saudi desert stretched endlessly in every direction, but there, rising from the sand, was supposed to be humanity’s next great leap forward.
Now Ahmed sits in a café in Riyadh, scrolling through job listings on his phone. The Neom desert megacity project that promised to house nine million people in a 100-mile linear utopia has quietly shrunk to something barely longer than a neighborhood street. The buses stopped running. The dreams stopped growing.
“We all knew something was wrong when they stopped talking about timelines,” Ahmed says, stirring his coffee. “Then they stopped talking altogether.”
The $500 Billion Promise That Became a $5 Billion Reality Check
The Line was never meant to be just another construction project. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called it a “revolution for civilization” – a perfectly straight, mirrored wall slicing through northwest Saudi Arabia for 170 kilometers. Inside this architectural marvel, nine million residents would live in climate-controlled luxury, served by artificial intelligence and powered entirely by renewable energy.
The marketing videos were breathtaking. Glass towers reflecting endless desert, flying cars gliding between levels, and residents enjoying beach resorts and ski slopes all within the same linear city. International media ate it up. Investors lined up with checkbooks open.
But 2024 brought a harsh wake-up call that echoed through boardrooms worldwide. Internal documents leaked, revealing that the grand 170-kilometer vision had quietly shrunk to just 2.4 kilometers by 2030. That’s not a scaling back – that’s abandoning 99% of the original plan.
“The numbers don’t lie, even when the press releases do,” says Dr. Sarah Mitchell, an urban planning expert who consulted on early Neom designs. “You can’t build a linear city for nine million people in 2.4 kilometers. You can barely build a shopping mall.”
What Really Happened Behind the Desert Walls
The warning signs were everywhere for those who knew how to read them. Construction workers began reporting shorter rotation periods. International consultants found their contracts mysteriously non-renewable. Entire sections of the massive construction site sat frozen, equipment covered in desert dust.
Here’s what the Neom desert megacity project looked like on paper versus reality:
| Original Promise | Current Reality |
|---|---|
| 170 kilometers long | 2.4 kilometers planned by 2030 |
| 9 million residents | 300,000 maximum capacity |
| $500 billion investment | Estimated $50 billion spent so far |
| Completion by 2030 | Indefinite timeline |
| Revolutionary transport systems | Basic infrastructure only |
Workers who were there describe a project that changed direction every few months:
- Three different master plans in one year
- Constant redesigns that wiped out months of work
- Budgets that seemed disconnected from engineering realities
- Management that prioritized marketing over construction timelines
A British engineer who requested anonymity describes the experience as “PowerPoint urbanism” – beautiful presentations that bore little resemblance to what could actually be built in the desert. “Every meeting felt like we were designing a movie set, not a city where people would actually live,” he recalls.
The most telling detail? Officials stopped using the word “abandon” entirely. Everything became “phasing” and “prioritization.” The language changed, but the reality remained the same – the Neom desert megacity as originally conceived was dead.
Who Pays the Price When Desert Dreams Crumble
The human cost of this scaling back goes far beyond construction delays. Thousands of international workers relocated their families to Saudi Arabia based on multi-year contract promises. Local communities were displaced to make room for The Line’s footprint. Investors, both individual and institutional, committed billions based on the original vision.
James Rodriguez, a former project coordinator, moved his family from London in 2022 expecting a five-year assignment. By mid-2024, his contract was terminated with three months’ notice. “We sold our house, pulled our kids out of school, started learning Arabic,” he says. “Now we’re back to square one, except our savings are gone.”
The ripple effects extend throughout Saudi Arabia’s economy. Local suppliers ramped up operations to meet Neom’s demands, hiring thousands of workers and investing in specialized equipment. Many now face financial difficulties as orders evaporated.
“This isn’t just about one failed project,” explains economist Dr. Khalid Al-Rashid. “When you promise to transform a nation’s economy and then quietly back away, the credibility damage lasts for decades.”
The bigger question haunting Saudi boardrooms is accountability. Tens of billions have been spent with little to show beyond some foundation work and a lot of expensive promotional videos. Unlike private companies that face shareholder lawsuits, state-backed projects like the Neom desert megacity operate with different rules.
Critics point out that no one has been held responsible for the dramatic scaling back. No executive has been fired. No investigation has been announced. The money simply… disappeared into the desert sand.
What This Means for Saudi Arabia’s Future
The quiet abandonment of The Line’s grand vision represents more than just one failed construction project. It’s a test case for Saudi Arabia’s entire Vision 2030 strategy, which promised to diversify the kingdom’s oil-dependent economy through massive infrastructure investments.
If the most high-profile project in this transformation can shrink by 99% without consequences, what does that say about the dozens of other mega-projects promised across the kingdom?
“Investor confidence isn’t just about returns,” notes financial analyst Maria Gonzalez, who tracks Middle Eastern infrastructure investments. “It’s about predictability. When promises change this dramatically without explanation, it makes everyone nervous about committing to the next big Saudi project.”
The international implications are equally significant. Countries worldwide watched The Line as a potential model for sustainable urban development. Its failure – and the opacity surrounding that failure – sends a chilling message to other nations considering similar ambitious projects.
For ordinary Saudi citizens, the Neom desert megacity’s collapse raises uncomfortable questions about resource allocation. While billions flowed into desert construction, hospitals, schools, and housing remain underfunded in many regions.
FAQs
How much money has been spent on the Neom desert megacity project?
Estimates suggest around $50 billion has been spent, though official figures haven’t been released publicly.
Will any part of The Line actually be built?
Current plans suggest a 2.4-kilometer section may be completed by 2030, but even this reduced scope faces uncertainty.
What happened to all the workers on the project?
Many international contractors have had their contracts terminated early, while local workers have been reassigned to other projects or laid off.
Is this the end of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 program?
No, but The Line’s scaling back has raised questions about the feasibility and management of other mega-projects in the program.
Who is being held accountable for the project’s problems?
No officials have been publicly held responsible for the dramatic reduction in scope or the billions spent.
Could The Line still be expanded in the future?
While technically possible, the current focus appears to be on making even the reduced 2.4-kilometer section viable rather than expanding further.
