Neom | |
|---|---|
City | |
 Logo | |
  Neom Neom in Saudi Arabia | |
| Coordinates:28°07′52″N34°55′15″E / 28.131088°N 34.920757°E /28.131088; 34.920757 | |
| Country | Saudi Arabia |
| Province | Tabuk |
| Announced | 24 October 2017; 8 years ago (2017-10-24) |
| Founded by | Mohammed bin Salman |
| Government | |
| • Lord Mayor | Aimen Al-Mudaifer[1] |
| Area | |
• Total | 26,500 km2 (10,200 sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+03 (Arabian Standard Time) |
| Website | www |
Neom (Arabic:نيوم,romanized: Niyōm,Hejazi Arabic pronunciation:[nɪˈjo̞ːm]) is anarcology andplanned city being built inTabuk Province inSaudi Arabia. It was launched in 2017 by crown princeMohammad bin Salman, who was the driving force and hands-on chair behind the project.[2] The site is at the northern tip of theRed Sea, due east ofEgypt across theGulf of Aqaba and south ofJordan. The total planned area of Neom is 26,500 km2 (10,200 sq mi). Multiple regions are planned, including a floating industrial complex, global trade hub, tourist resorts, anda linear city powered by renewable energy sources.[3][4] Thousands of people have been forcibly moved to make way for the project and villages have been razed.[5]
Much of the city is hoped to be completed by 2030, with the upcomingSaudi Vision 2030 around the corner.[6] Some experts have expressed skepticism about the ambitions of themegaproject.[7] Initially estimated to cost $1.6 trillion,[2] the project's estimated costs were eventually in excess of $8.8 trillion (more than 25 times the annual Saudi budget).[8] On 29 January 2019, the Saudi government announced that it had established a closedjoint-stock company named Neom.[9] The company, which is solely dedicated to developing the economic zone of Neom, is wholly owned by thePublic Investment Fund, the Saudi government'ssovereign wealth fund.[10]
Saudi Arabia originally aimed to complete major parts of the project by 2020, with an expansion completed in 2025, but fell behind schedule.[11][12] By July 2022, only two buildings had been constructed, and most of the project area remained bare desert.[12] In 2024, theSindalah project was completed, three years after schedule and at three times its initial cost.[8] In 2024, the project was reported to have been substantially scaled back from its original plan; however, this was denied by the Saudi Economic Minister,Faisal F. Alibrahim.[8][13] An internal audit of the megaproject found extensive problems, including "evidence of deliberate manipulation", by the managers of the project.[8] By 2025, new contracts for Neom dried up and there was no mention of Neom in Saudi Arabia's pre-budget statement for 2026.[14]
Neom's construction has also been criticised for environmental and human rights violations, with expatriate employees describing abusive working conditions and members of the localHoweitat tribe protesting against their forced expulsion.[15][16] Around 20,000 people are expected to be forcibly relocated.[17] Members of the Howeitat tribe have been killed resisting evictions, includingAbdul Rahim al-Huwaiti who was killed by Saudi security forces under disputed circumstances.[18] Three other members of the tribe were also sentenced to death for resisting evictions.[19]
The name "Neom" is aportmanteau. The first three letters are the Greek prefixneo meaning "new". The fourth letter, M, is the first letter of Crown PrinceMohammed bin Salman's name,[20] as well as the first letter of the Arabic word for "future" (Arabic:مستقبل,romanized: Mustaqbal,Hejazi Arabic pronunciation:[mʊsˈtaɡbal]). Thereby Neom means "new future".[21][22]
Salman announced plans for theplanned city at theFuture Investment Initiative conference inRiyadh on October 24, 2017.[23] He said that it would operate independently from the "existing governmental framework" with its own tax and labour laws and an "autonomous judicial system".[24] Egypt announced in 2018 that it would contribute some land to the Neom project.[25]
Klaus Kleinfeld was announced by Salman as the inaugural director for the Neom project upon its launch.[26] In 2018, Kleinfeld signed Gladstone Place Partners LLC to handle communications services for the Neom project for a fee of $199,500 plus expenses of $45,000.[27][full citation needed][28] Kleinfeld was then announced as an advisor tobin Salman andNadhmi Al-Nasr as the director of Neom.[26]
The initiative to create the city of Neom emerged fromSaudi Vision 2030, a plan to reduce Saudi Arabia's dependence on oil,diversify its economy, and developpublic-service sectors.[29] Plans call for robots to perform functions such as security,logistics, home delivery, and caregiving[30] and for the city to be powered solely with wind and solar power.[24]
In 2023, Saudi rulerMohammed bin Salman said of the critics of the project, "They say in a lot of projects that happen in Saudi Arabia, it can't be done, this is very ambitious. They can keep saying that. And we can keep proving them wrong."[2] In 2025, theWall Street Journal reported on an internal audit of the megaproject which found extensive problems, including "evidence of deliberate manipulation", by the managers of the project.[8] By 2025, new contracts for Neom dried up and there was no mention of Neom in Saudi Arabia's pre-budget statement for 2026.[14]
In October 2024, an opening party forSindalah, a luxury island destination, was held, the first for Neom region.[31] Despite the opening party, theWall Street Journal reported that as of March 2025, Sindalah remains closed to the public[8] and its fate is uncertain.[32] A few weeks after the opening party, Neom CEO Al-Nasr was removed from his position and replaced byAimen Al-Mudaifer, head of the Local Real Estate division at Saudi Arabia'sPublic Investment Fund.[1]
Former Neom employees likened the working culture toHans Christian Andersen’s fairy taleThe Emperor’s New Clothes, as dissent was ignored or punished.[2] Bin Salman, the project's hands-on chair, proposed increasingly bold ideas for the project that staff had concerns about.[2]
| Name | Announced | |
|---|---|---|
| The Line | 10 January 2021[33] | |
| Oxagon | 16 November 2021[34] | |
| Trojena | 3 March 2022[35] | |
| Sindalah | 5 December 2022[36] | |
| Magna regions[37] | ||
| Leyja | 15 October 2023[38] | |
| Epicon | 15 November 2023[39] | |
| Siranna | 29 November 2023[40] | |
| Utamo | 13 December 2023[41] | |
| Norlana | 27 December 2023[42] | |
| Aquellum | 10 January 2024[43] | |
| Zardun | 24 January 2024[44] | |
| Xaynor | 7 February 2024[45] | |
| Elanan | 21 February 2024[46] | |
| Gidori | 6 March 2024[47] | |
| Treyam | 20 March 2024[48] | |
| Jaumur | 8 May 2024[49] | |
The Line (Arabic:ذا لاين) is a plannedsmart city in Neom, Tabuk Province,Saudi Arabia, to be housed in a single very long building—alinear settlement—that is designed tohave no cars, streets orcarbon emissions.[50][51] The project was thought up by Saudi rulerMohammed bin Salman, who was the hands-on chair of project.[52]
The initial plan was for the city to span 170 kilometres (110 mi) at a height of 500 m (1,600 ft)[53] and a width of 200 metres (660 ft), sized to accommodate a population of 9 million, 25% of Saudi Arabia's 2022 population of 35.5 million.[54] The Line was planned to have an entirely glass mirror exterior,[54] with all basic services within a five-minute walking distance.[55][56] The city is one of the five announcedregions of Neom and is a part ofSaudi Vision 2030 project.[50]
The development work of the project's first phase, Neom Bay, was planned to start in the first quarter of 2019 with completion by 2020.[57][needs update] The developments were to include constructing the airport at Sharma, which would operate regular commercial flights betweenRiyadh and Neom.[58] The plan of Neom Bay's developments also involves building the first residential area in Neom as part of Phase 1.[59]
In June 2019, it was announced that theNeom Bay Airport would begin commercial flight traffic after the first phase of the airport was completed with a runway length of 3,757 m (12,326 ft).[60][61][62] The first commercial flight was bySaudia from Riyadh.[63] The planned airport has been registered by theInternational Air Transport Association (IATA) with the code NUM.[61]
Oxagon (originally named Neom Industrial City) was announced as a floating industrial complex in the shape of an octagon. According to the announcement, it will be located around 25 kilometres (16 mi) north of the town ofDuba, and cover roughly 200–250 square kilometres (77–97 sq mi) of land, of which approximately 40 square kilometres (15 sq mi) will form the city.[64] Oxagon is designed to focus on manufacturing, industrial research and development, incorporating the former Duba port, which has been renamed the "port of Neom".[65][66] The plans for the complex include adesalination plant, ahydrogen plant, and anoceanographic research center.[67][68] It will also be home to the cognitive multinational company Tonomus (originally NEOM Tech & Digital Company), which is the firstsubsidiary company to evolve from NEOM.[69][70][71]
On 16 December 2022, Saudi Arabia'sMinistry of Industry and Mineral Resources, theSaudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zones and Neom signed amemorandum of understanding to facilitate collaboration and legislation in support of Neom's Future Factories Program.[72]
On 3 March 2022, the Trojena project was launched, which will potentially be the first major outdoor skiing destination in theArabian Peninsula. The project's site is about 50 kilometres (31 mi) from theGulf of Aqaba coast in theSarat Mountains, with elevations ranging from 1,500–2,600 metres (4,900–8,500 ft). Although it is in the desert, the site's climate is considerably cooler than is the rest of Neom's territory.[73][74][75][76][77][78] Ennismore, a lifestyle and hospitality company, was announced as the inaugural partner with its brands 25hours Hotels and Morgans Originals.[79][80] In September 2023,Zaha Hadid Architects designed a 330 m (1,080 ft) tall skyscraper for Trojena which will stand on a mountain overlooking an artificial lake. Renders of the skyscraper, which will be connected to the lakeside development by a cable car, showed a crystalline structure made of numerous columns that narrow towards the peak.[81]
In December 2022, Neom announced plans for Sindalah, an 1,100,000-cubic-yard luxury resort complex off the city coast.[82] It is planned to have an 86-berthmarina and three luxury hotels, and it could accommodate as many as 2,400 visitors daily.[83][82] A nine-holegolf course overlooking the sea was constructed in 2023. In October 2024, Sindalah held a grand opening party, but had not yet open to visitors as of March 2025.[8]
In January 2024, Neom announced Aquellum, a "subterranean digitalized community of the future" that would "invert architectural principles to integrate with nature". Described as an "upside-down skyscraper", it is planned to be dug into a 450 m-high (1,480 ft) mountain, with access from an underwater square.[84]
Leyja is a planned tourist destination which is designed to support theSaudi Vision 2030 plan for a sustainable tourism industry. According to theSaudi Press Agency, 95 per cent of Leyja's land area will be preserved for natural space.[85] Leyja includes three Hotels which are the Adventure Hotel, designed byOffice for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), Oasis Hotel, designed byMario Cucinella Architects (MCA), and the Wellness Hotel, designed byKilla Design. The hotels will provide 120 boutique rooms and suites.[86]
Neom plans for 6,500 hectares (16,000 acres) of the surrounding land to become agricultural fields and to rely heavily ongenetically engineered crops.[87][88]
A subsidiary,ENOWA, has been founded to provide renewable energy, green hydrogen, and zero waste desalination.[89][90]
In March 2020, Neom signed a partnership deal as a principal partner withMercedes-EQ Formula E Team.[91] In June 2022, Neom became the title sponsor ofMcLaren Racing's electric motorsport division as NEOM McLaren Electric Racing from the 2022–23 season, with McLaren'sFormula E andExtreme E divisions renamed asNEOM McLaren Formula E Team andNEOM McLaren Extreme E Team, respectively.[92] Following McLaren's exit from Formula E and Extreme E, Neom continued their partnership by sponsoring McLaren's secondF1 Academy entrant as McLaren Oxagon for the2026 season.[93][94]
In July 2020, the American companyAir Products & Chemicals announced that it would build the world's largestgreen hydrogen plant in Saudi Arabia. The company will jointly own the US$5 billion project with Saudi Arabia'sACWA Power and Neom.[95]
In March 2021, Neom signed a four-year global sponsorship agreement with theAsian Football Confederation.[96]
In 2022, Neom hosted Extreme E's2022 Desert X-Prix and held the naming rights to the series'Island X-Prix inSardinia.[97][98] In May 2022, Indian conglomerateLarsen & Toubro was awarded the contract for construction of a 2,930-megawatt solar power generation plant, a 1,370-megawatt wind-power farm, a 400-megawatt battery energy storage system, and a power transmission network of about 190 km.[99] In October 2022, Trojena was announced as the future host of the2029 Asian Winter Games.[100]
After opening its first international office inLondon in November 2023, Neom opened its second one inNew York in February 2024.[101]
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Despite historically antagonistic relations,Israel is speculated to play a significant role in the development of NEOM, with some suggesting that Saudi Arabia may be expressing an interest in Israeli intellectual capabilities for this purpose. It is also suggested that Israel has reciprocated this interest. In line with this, Saudi Arabia is reported to hope to establish an economic partnership with Israel to promote the economic development of NEOM. In particular, analysts suggest that Saudi Arabia may be interested in enhancing economic relations withhigh-tech industries in Israel, which are essential for the technological vision of NEOM. According to a report in an Israeli newspaper, there is purportedly evidence of coordination between Arab businessmen and diplomats inTel Aviv, with companies in Israel said to be prepared to secure contracts worth billions of dollars. The Saudi Arabian government is also reportedly involved in such communications. Consequently, analysts have proposed that NEOM could serve as a potential impetus for normalisation between Saudi Arabia and Israel.[102][103]
Researchers documented alarmingly high mortality rates among migrant workers from India, Bangladesh, and Nepal employed on Saudi construction projects, including Neom. Government sources show that 70–80% of worker deaths are officially classified as "natural causes", but investigations reveal many workers actually collapsed at their workplaces before dying.[104] A 2024ITV documentary reported approximately 21,000 foreign worker deaths since construction began in 2017, with an additional 100,000 workers reported missing.[105][106] This information pertains to the construction projects of "Saudi Vision 2030", which includes NEOM.[107]
Workers report extreme conditions including 16-hour workdays for 14 consecutive days in temperatures reaching 50°C. Many describe feeling like "trapped slaves", with some required to pay fines equivalent to five months' salary to leave their positions.[104] Researchers collected information about migrant workers' deaths from Indian, Bangladeshi, and Nepali government sources. Across nationalities the large majority of deaths of workers were attributed to "natural causes", which accounted for 74 percent of 1,420 Indian migrant worker deaths recorded just at the Indian embassy in Riyadh in 2023; 80 percent of 887 Bangladeshi deaths during the first 6 months of 2024, and 68 percent of 870 Nepali migrant worker deaths from 2019 to 2022. At least 13,685 Bangladeshis died in Saudi Arabia between 2008 and 2022, according to records kept by the Bangladeshi government. More than 1,500 Bangladeshis died in 2022 alone, a rate of more than four a day.[108] Approximately 20 percent of Neom workers are from Bangladesh. Five of the nine cases Human Rights Watch documented of deaths that official documents classify as nonwork related, including by "natural causes", involved workers who collapsed at their workplace and later died, their families said.[104][106][109][110]
In 2022, former employees reported NEOM project CEONadhmi Al-Nasr for promoting a management culture that "belittledexpatriates, made unrealistic demands, and neglected discrimination in the workplace".[22][111] The resignation letter of a former chief executive,Andrew Wirth, accused Nasr's leadership of being "consistently inclusive of disparagement and inappropriately dismissive and demeaning outbursts".[111] Nasr, appointed by Prince Mohammed with the responsibility to lead NEOM, was accused in his tenure of berating and scaring his employees, as confirmed by present and former staff members.[112] Two gigaprojects under the Saudi Vision 2030 were merged in 2022, while the remaining three projects lost their expatriate chief executives and turned over the senior management.[111]
The Saudi government refused to comment, while Neom declined to make Nasr available for answers or interview requests. However, Neom issued a written statement in defense of Nasr and the management culture at the megaproject, asserting that Neom represented "a scale and ambition the world has never seen before" and that it continued to retain and attract more talent because "employees are passionate about what they do and deeply committed to living up to, and delivering on, the Neom vision".[113] Anthony Harris, a former director of innovation at Neom's education team, accused the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman of fostering a faulty workplace culture since "Nadhmi takes his cue from his boss, and everyone else at Neom takes their cue from Nadhmi."[111] At one company meeting, Nasr said on record, "I drive everybody like a slave, when they drop down dead, I celebrate. That's how I do my projects."[111] He also threatened to replace employees stuck in other countries during theCOVID-19 pandemic lockdown in 2020, which included the former director of branding and marketing.[111]
In late 2018, Neom's progress suffered after theassassination of Jamal Khashoggi.[114] Advisers to Neom, includingDaniel L. Doctoroff[115] and architectNorman Foster, were reported to have distanced themselves from the project and the "toxic" Saudi crown prince.[116]
It is estimated that 20,000 people will be forced to relocate to accommodate the planned city.[17] TheHoweitat tribe, who are native to the area, have said that they do not oppose the city but would rather not face forced expulsion and violence.[18] On 13 April 2020, activistAbdul Rahim al-Huwaiti posted videos online announcing that Saudi security forces were trying to evict him and other members of the Howeitat tribe from their historical homeland to make way for the development of Neom.[22][18] In the videos, Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti said that he would defy the eviction orders, although he expected that Saudi authorities would plant weapons in his house to incriminate him.[117] He was later shot and killed by Saudi security forces, who claimed he had opened fire on them.[117] London-based human rights activist and fellow Howeitat tribe member Alya Alhwaiti disputed this version of events, stating that al-Huwaiti did not own firearms.[18] al-Huwaiti's funeral was held near the village of al-Khoraibah and was well attended despite the presence of Saudi security forces.[18] Eight cousins of al-Huwaiti have been arrested for protesting against the eviction order, but Alhwaiti has said that she and other human rights activists hoped to challenge the arrests.[18]
In June 2020, Salman signed a $1.7 million contract with American public-relations and lobbying firmRuder Finn to counter the criticism and controversies involving the Neom city project.[118] In November 2020, British lawyers representing the Howeitat tribe urged Foreign SecretaryDominic Raab to boycott theG20 Summit in Saudi Arabia, arguing that the United Kingdom has a moral imperative to take a stand in defense of the tribe and confront Saudi Arabia over its human-rights issues.[119] In October 2022, theSpecialized Criminal Court of Saudi Arabia sentenced three members of the Howeitat tribe to death for resisting displacement.[19] The three men were arrested in 2020 for opposing the eviction of their tribe for the project. One of the condemned men, Shadli al-Howeiti, was the brother ofAbdul Rahim al-Huwaiti.[120] In May 2024, a former intelligence officer for Saudi Arabia named Col.Rabih Alenezi claimed that Saudi authorities have permitted the use of lethal force to clear land for Neom and he was ordered to shoot a villager for refusing to be evicted.[121]
Designers of The Line announced plans to use data as a currency to manage and provide facilities such as power, waste, water, healthcare, transport and security.[122][123] It was said that data would also be collected from the smartphones of the residents, their homes, facial recognition cameras and multiple other sensors. According to Joseph Bradley, the chief executive of Neom Tech & Digital Co., the data sweep would help developers feed the collected information to the city for further predicting and customizing every user's needs.[122]
However, Saudi Arabia's poorhuman rights record[124] and use ofespionage[125] andsurveillance technology for spying on its citizens[126] emerged as a roadblock, according to digital rights experts. Vincent Mosco, a researcher into the social effects of technology, stated that "the surveillance concerns are justified" while further adding that "it is, in effect, a surveillance city".[122] The Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology did not respond to digital rights experts and researchers' requests for comments.[122]
The project has been critiqued as a "laboratory of false solutions" inasmuch ascarbon capture and storage (CCS),green hydrogen, andcarbon-offsetting are self-servingpanaceas backed by thefossil fuel industry which do not work at scale.[127]
In October 2022, Neom was announced as the host of the2029 Asian Winter Games, a decision that received criticism concerning its adverse environmental impact.[100] Amidst increasingglobal-warming concerns, the project drew multiple points of concern, including the expected high temperatures in the desert land, the energy impact, and detour of local water resources to the construction of artificial ski slopes from scratch. Raphael Le Magoariec, a political scientist and specialist in the geopolitics of sports in thePersian Gulf region said that Riyadh "mainly wants to promote its city of the future".[100]International Ski and Snowboard Federation secretary generalMichel Vion expressed surprise at the decision of theOlympic Council of Asia and Olympic downhill silver medalistJohan Clarey said, "it is awful for our sport."[100]
Furthermore Salman's vision for the city includes such fanciful technologies asflying cars,robot maids, dinosaur robots, and even a giant artificial moon.[128] Former managers and executives involved in the Neom megaproject have said that the project's projections are completely unrealistic and that some of them refused to sign off on plans. Dissenters and skeptics have been removed from Neom-related projects.[8]
In March 2025, theWall Street Journal reported on an internal audit of the Neom megaproject wherein it was found that executives, aided byMcKinsey & Company, had relied on unrealistically rosy assumptions to justify cost overruns.[8] The audit found "evidence of deliberate manipulation" of finances by "certain members of management".[8] McKinsey's fees have reached $130 million in a single year.[8]
