Saudi Arabia is preparing to significantly scale back and redesign NEOM, the flagship development launched in 2017 under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, following years of delays and budget overruns. According to new reporting by The Financial Times, a year-long internal review nearing completion is expected to recommend a substantially smaller and more pragmatic version of the project.Â
The revised vision would mark a departure from NEOM’s original scope, which covered an area along the Red Sea coast comparable in size to Belgium and featured a series of highly ambitious megastructures. Central to the reassessment is The Line, the proposed 100-mile linear city that formed the project’s controversial centerpiece.Â
Plans for The Line are expected to be scaled back further, with architects reportedly redesigning the scheme into a more modest development that makes use of infrastructure already under construction. NEOM may instead be repositioned as a hub for data centers, aligning with Saudi Arabia’s broader push to develop its artificial intelligence sector.
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