# NEOM / The Line, Saudi Arabia
> Saudi Arabia's US$500 billion Public Investment Fund megaproject in Tabuk province, flagship of Vision 2030, now sharply scaled back after The Line's indefinite halt in 2025-2026.

**Meta:** type: reference · date: 2026-07-03 · heads:  · 4 takes · 3 lenses · 3 regions

## What it is

NEOM is a Saudi state megaproject in Tabuk province, northwestern Saudi Arabia, covering 26,500 square kilometres along the Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced it at the inaugural Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh in October 2017 with an initial US$500 billion budget. NEOM is wholly owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) through a closed joint-stock company incorporated in January 2019.

The project bundles six components: The Line (a proposed 170km linear city), Oxagon (a floating industrial port), Trojena (a mountain resort at 2,600 metres elevation), Magna (a coastal destination on the Gulf of Aqaba), a 19,000-square-kilometre nature reserve, and an offshore island cluster. The Line, announced separately in January 2021, was conceived as a car-free city 200 metres wide, 500 metres tall, and 170 kilometres long, designed to house 9 million residents and run entirely on renewable energy.

## History

NEOM was pitched as the centrepiece of Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia's plan to reduce dependence on oil revenue. The Line was unveiled in January 2021 as a linear-city concept with zero cars, zero carbon emissions, and 100% renewable power. In 2020, NEOM Green Hydrogen Company was established as a joint venture among Air Products, ACWA Power, and NEOM; it completed financial close in 2023 and targets 600 tonnes per day of carbon-free hydrogen for green ammonia export.

By 2024, a Wall Street Journal report on an internal audit placed full completion cost at US$8.8 trillion across roughly 55 years, far beyond the original US$500 billion framing. Population targets for 2030 were cut in stages: from 1.5 million to 300,000, then again to 100,000. Workforce reductions began in late 2024, and Saudi Arabia's PIF began a broader capital-allocation review in 2025.

## Current state

Saudi Arabia's PIF halted work on The Line in September 2025 pending a strategic review. Semafor reported in May 2026 that the halt extends indefinitely past 2030, with the mirrored-tower design simplified to cut cost. As of mid-2026, approximately 2.4 kilometres of foundation work exists; no above-ground structure has been built.

NEOM has earmarked roughly US$16 billion (SAR 60 billion) to terminate contractor agreements, and known cancellations since late 2025 exceed US$8.45 billion. The workforce has been reduced by about 35%, with over 1,000 staff relocated to Riyadh. CEO Aiman Al-Mudaifer, appointed in 2025, is pivoting resources toward Oxagon's industrial and logistics functions and green energy. See [NEOMがザ・ラインを2030年以降まで停止、契約解除費用は160億ドルに](/ja/n/neom-the-line-halted) for the full cancellation timeline.

## Relationships

NEOM is the signature project of [Mohammed bin Salman](/ja/n/mohammed-bin-salman-dossier), who announced it and remains personally identified with Vision 2030. Saudi Arabia's PIF is the sole owner and funder. The [サウジアラビア、戦費で四半期として過去最大の財政赤字](/ja/n/saudi-q1-record-deficit) and tighter PIF capital allocation in 2025-2026 accelerated the pullback. Air Products and ACWA Power retain stakes in the Green Hydrogen joint venture, the project's most commercially advanced component.

## What to watch

- Whether Oxagon delivers revenue-generating industrial output before Vision 2030's 2030 deadline
- The final cancellation bill: known terminations already exceed US$8.45 billion and contractor arbitration disputes may follow
- Whether NEOM's green hydrogen exports begin as projected in 2027 and at what scale
- How Saudi Arabia reconciles the public retreat on The Line with the Vision 2030 brand and MBS's credibility as a reformer

## Regional takes (batched by bias / lens)

### official record
- **NEOM Company** (Saudi Arabia, en) — Official about page: ownership structure, stated mission, the six project components (The Line, Oxagon, Trojena, Magna, Nature Reserve, Islands), and leadership under CEO Aiman Al-Mudaifer.
  Source: https://www.neom.com/en-us/about
- **Saudi Vision 2030** (Saudi Arabia, en) — Saudi government listing of NEOM under Vision 2030 projects, confirming the investment framing and economic diversification rationale for the megaproject.
  Source: https://www.vision2030.gov.sa/en/explore/projects/neom

### investigative
- **Semafor** (United States, en) — Broke the May 2026 story that NEOM halted all work on The Line indefinitely past 2030, with mirrored-tower designs simplified to cut cost and the population target cut to 100,000.
  Source: https://www.semafor.com/article/05/22/2026/saudis-neom-halts-work-on-the-line-until-after-2030

### overview
- **Euronews** (Europe, en) — January 2026 overview of NEOM's strategic pullback: reduced population targets, workforce cuts, and the widening gap between the megacity concept and what construction can deliver.
  Source: https://www.euronews.com/culture/2026/01/26/neom-no-more-saudi-arabia-reduces-ambitious-plans-for-the-line-and-futuristic-megacity

## Across the graph
- Related: [[neom-the-line-halted]], [[mohammed-bin-salman-dossier]], [[saudi-q1-record-deficit]]
- Entities: Neom the Line, Person:mohammed Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia

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Canonical: https://rbtfl.xyz/ja/n/neom-the-line-dossier