The $500 billion futuristic city of NEOM, declared by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) as part of his Vision 2030 project, will never come true.
Saudi Arabia is building its very first cognitive and smart $500 billion city, that is supposed to set a blueprint for the future of the country and the world. But despite all the buzz, the future of the city is probably doomed.
Experts suggested that bringing Neom out of the realm of science fiction is proving a formidable challenge, even for a near-absolute ruler with access to a $620 billion sovereign wealth fund.
According to more than 25 current and former employees interviewed for this story, as well as 2,700 pages of internal documents, the project has been plagued by setbacks, many stemming from the difficulty of implementing MBS’s grandiose, ever-changing ideas—and of telling a prince who’s overseen the imprisonment of many of his own family members that his desires can’t be met.
Dozens of key staff have quit, complaining of a toxic work environment and a culture of wild overspending with few results. And along the way, Neom has become something of a full-employment guarantee for international architects, futurists, and even Hollywood production designers, each taking a cut of Saudi Arabia’s petroleum riches in exchange for work that some strongly suspect will never be used.
Neom’s former employees raised concerns that bringing the giga-project out of the realm of science fiction might never happen. Architecture experts have called it “insane.” Sources inside the royal circle no longer shy away from lashing out at MBS’ ever-changing ideas, “mood swings,” “terrible tempers” and fear-based leadership.
Riyadh’s newly unveiled plan for Neom – a megacity with two 170 kilometer-long structures that will house nine million people – has left architects aghast calling it a ‘science-fiction jumble.’
Neom’s former employees raised concerns that bringing the giga-project out of the realm of science fiction might never happen. Architecture experts have called it “insane.” Sources inside the royal circle no longer shy away from lashing out at MBS’ ever-changing ideas, “mood swings,” “terrible tempers” and fear-based leadership.
Riyadh’s newly unveiled plan for Neom – a megacity with two 170 kilometer-long structures that will house nine million people – has left architects aghast calling it a ‘science-fiction jumble.’
While other Saudi Arabian major project contracts wait to be announced, the French drone maker Azur Drones has taken an order to supply NEOM and Al-Ula, as the firm continues to develop its business in the region. France’s Azur Drones, a small company based near Bordeaux, will deliver several Skeyetech autonomous surveillance drones to Saudi Arabia in Neom.
Over the past year, Saudi authorities tore down 32 Jeddah neighborhoods, displacing hundreds of thousands of people — some estimates say more than 1 million — almost half of them migrants whose families came decades ago for the pilgrimage to Mecca and never left.
Sometimes residents were given only 24 hours’ notice before power and water were cut off, with no chance to stop the bulldozers that soon followed, according to the paper.
The speed and breadth of the demolitions brought a raft of condemnation from rights groups saying they violated international human rights standards and discriminated against foreigners.
Bin Salman’s extravagant spending since emerging as the main power broker in Saudi Arabia has repeatedly made headlines.
