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Monday, Jan 26, 2026
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Saudi Arabia scales back Neom as The Line is redesigned and Trojena downsized
The shift follows a comprehensive review citing construction delays, budget overruns, and tighter financial conditions.
Saudi Arabia is significantly scaling back its flagship Neom megaproject on the Red Sea coast after a comprehensive review, with plans being reworked amid construction delays, budget overruns, and tighter financial conditions.
Neom was initially envisioned as a futuristic urban development stretching across an area described as the size of Belgium, but the revised approach reframes it as a more modest and focused project with narrowed deliverables.
A central pillar, The Line, is being extensively redesigned to make greater use of existing infrastructure, marking a reset in how the linear-city concept is intended to be executed.
The recalibration shifts emphasis toward industrial functions, including a heavier focus on data centers, aligning the project mix more closely with a stated push to position Saudi Arabia as a leader in artificial intelligence.
The review is also linked to broader fiscal and scheduling pressures, including subdued oil revenues and major upcoming commitments such as hosting the Expo 2030 and the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
Confirmed vs unclear: What we can confirm is Saudi Arabia has initiated a major scale-back and redesign of Neom, including changes to The Line and a downsizing of Trojena / What’s still unclear is the full revised scope, sequencing, and final scale of each Neom subproject as the redesign work continues.
Trojena, a planned ski-resort development within Neom that had been associated with hosting the 2029 Asian Winter Games, is being downsized and will no longer serve as the venue for that event.
Separately, Saudi Arabia and the Olympic Council of Asia have agreed to indefinitely postpone the 2029 Asian Winter Games that had been slated for Trojena, and no specific reason was publicly provided for the postponement.
The new direction places greater scrutiny on returns tied to Neom’s funding and oversight structures, as the Public Investment Fund recalibrates its broader megaproject portfolio under tighter conditions.
Neom was initially envisioned as a futuristic urban development stretching across an area described as the size of Belgium, but the revised approach reframes it as a more modest and focused project with narrowed deliverables.
A central pillar, The Line, is being extensively redesigned to make greater use of existing infrastructure, marking a reset in how the linear-city concept is intended to be executed.
The recalibration shifts emphasis toward industrial functions, including a heavier focus on data centers, aligning the project mix more closely with a stated push to position Saudi Arabia as a leader in artificial intelligence.
The review is also linked to broader fiscal and scheduling pressures, including subdued oil revenues and major upcoming commitments such as hosting the Expo 2030 and the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
Confirmed vs unclear: What we can confirm is Saudi Arabia has initiated a major scale-back and redesign of Neom, including changes to The Line and a downsizing of Trojena / What’s still unclear is the full revised scope, sequencing, and final scale of each Neom subproject as the redesign work continues.
Trojena, a planned ski-resort development within Neom that had been associated with hosting the 2029 Asian Winter Games, is being downsized and will no longer serve as the venue for that event.
Separately, Saudi Arabia and the Olympic Council of Asia have agreed to indefinitely postpone the 2029 Asian Winter Games that had been slated for Trojena, and no specific reason was publicly provided for the postponement.
The new direction places greater scrutiny on returns tied to Neom’s funding and oversight structures, as the Public Investment Fund recalibrates its broader megaproject portfolio under tighter conditions.
