Saudi Arabian Crown Princes $12 trillion, desert-city dream in tatters as megaproject halted

The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia’s dreams of a glittering, futuristic city spanning his nation’s desert have come crashing down.The futuristic, carbon-neutral Neom project has long been touted as an urban utopia erected upon cutting-edge, sustainable technology.Its best-known component has been dubbed The Line – a sprawling 170km long, 500m high “smart city” which was supposed to be home to 9 million residents.The Wall Street Journal previously claimed it had sourced leaked internal documents revealing The Line’s projected costs had exploded to a whopping $US8.8 trillion ($12.3 trillion) by 2080.But now, reports have emerged indicating that the state-run company behind the project, Neom, has suspended all work on The Line until at least 2030.The international news platform Semafor reports the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund has had a change of heart.It’s redirecting cash flows affected by the Iran War and global energy transition towards more critical infrastructure, such as ports and AI data centres.And Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s vanity projects are paying the price.Adelaide has already fallen foul of the cost-cutting exercises of MbS’s sovereign wealth fund.Its $US5 billion carrot for the breakaway LIV Golf tour has been cut.Neom Stadium, an integral part of The Line’s first construction phase, was being sold as a prime venue for the 2034 FIFA World Cup.

But the future of the 46,000-seat sports field is yet to be confirmed.And the $1.6 billion Neom Industrial City Connector (NICC) high-speed rail link to The Line has just had its contract terminated.Then there’s the Trojena mountain resort.Work on this vast artificial snow field slated to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games has been halted.The swirling engineering marvel was supposed to produce a luxurious, year-round haven 2km above the surrounding desert sands.Semafor, citing “people familiar with the matter”, reports that Neom funding is being restricted to its most productiv...