--- title: "As Saudi Arabia’s 100-Mile Skyscraper Crumbles, They’re Replacing It With the Most Desperate Thing Imaginable" description: "No one is surprised that Neom — Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's $1.5 trillion-with-a-t plan to build a futuristic megacity smack dab in the middle of the desert — has [turned out to be a disaster](). Its centerpiece was…" date: "2026-01-28" modified: "2026-01-28" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/saudi-arabia-replacing-skyscraper-desperate" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Ethics" - "Future Society" --- # As Saudi Arabia’s 100-Mile Skyscraper Crumbles, They’re Replacing It With the Most Desperate Thing Imaginable ![The Saudi government is reportedly drastically scaling back its linear-city skyscraper in favor of something much more trendy.]() *Neom* No one is surprised that Neom — Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's $1.5 trillion-with-a-t plan to build a futuristic megacity smack dab in the middle of the desert — has [turned out to be a disaster](). Its centerpiece was supposed to be a towering skyscraper called The Line, over 100 miles in length, that could accommodate millions of people, something that the laws of reality always suggested would be impossible to pull off. But, according to [new reporting]() from the *Financial Times*, the saga may yet have a twist in store for us. The Saudi government is now considering drastically downsizing the linear city-skyscraper so it can instead turn Neom into a hub for — we swear we are not kidding — data centers. It's a proposal that reeks of a Saudi leadership desperate to find a way out of the multibillion dollar hole it's dug for itself, as the dysfunctional monarchy rushes to follow what everyone else is doing and cash in on the AI race. But royal insiders briefed on the matter insist that, actually, it's a testament to how flexible the Saudi government is. "It shows that the system has a capacity to adjust its goals," one of the people told the *FT*. The pivot was proposed as Riyadh wraps up its year-long review of Neom's progress, and continues a pattern of belt-tightening across the government's myriad, exorbitantly expensive investments — which include everything from [buying up entire sports leagues and teams]() to [competitive video games](). Ostensibly to diversify the country's oil-dependent economy, they're now becoming more burdensome as oil prices have been in steady decline, leaving the kingdom's purportedly trillion dollar Public Investment Fund [low on cash](). Jumping on the AI bandwagon, low hanging fruit as it is, could be lucrative for the Saudis. And according to the *FT*'s source, Neom's proximity to the Gulf of Aqaba makes it well suited for hosting data centers, even though seawater cooling is not the norm. "Data centers need water cooling and this is right on the coast so it will have seawater cooling," the source said. "So it will be a major center for data centers." The extent that The Line will be downscaled remains unclear, but it apparently isn't going away completely. The *FT's* source said that architects were already working on redesigning the megastructure into a more "modest" — and radically changed — project. "The Line will be a totally different concept. It will use the existing infrastructure in a totally different manner," the person told the *FT*. The linear city has been controversial since its conception due to its outrageous scale, exorbitant costs, and the human right abuses suffered by construction workers, with [thousands believed to have died]() while working on the project. Now it could be facing its biggest reality check yet, though Neom has repeatedly denied [previous reports]() suggesting it could be downsized. As it stands, its fate hinges on the ongoing review, which is slated to finish by or near the end of the first quarter of this year. **More on AI:** [*AI Data Centers Pushing Electric Grid Into Meltdown*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()