- Start
- May 22, 202690% CONFIDENCEfrom the source
NEOM Halts Construction on Saudi Arabia's The Line Until After 2030
- Semafor reported on May 22, 2026, citing people familiar with the matter, that NEOM has delayed further work on The Line - "the planned 170-kilometer long dual skyscrapers once projected to cost more than $1 trillion" - until at least after 2030, as the Public Investment Fund shifts spending to ports and data centers[3]
- The pause is wider than The Line: tourism destinations on the Red Sea coast are also postponed until after 2030, and Trojena, earlier due to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games, gets no new investment until after 2030[3]
- The twin mirrored skyscrapers are to be significantly redesigned, with no clarity on when the redesign will be finished or when new funding will be allocated; a BBC report of 25 May was summarised as saying The Line "is being turned into something considerably more prosaic"[2][3]
- NEOM plans about $3 billion more for OXAGON, the industrial city with a Red Sea port, adding utilities and data connectivity to attract AI firms' data centers[2][3]
- The decision follows a strategic review by CEO Aiman al-Mudaifer, appointed the previous year; the 2030 population target is now up to 100,000, having been 1.5 million and then revised to 300,000 two years earlier[3]
- New Civil Engineer, ten days later on 1 June 2026, went further: a PR professional who previously represented Neom said the project "appears to have stalled completely" and "I doubt it will go ahead at all"; that piece gives The Line's design as 300 m wide, 500 m tall and 170 km long[2]
- Contractor evidence of the wind-down: Webuild said in March 2026 that Neom had terminated for convenience its $4.7bn contract for Trojena's artificial lake (three dams and 'The Bow'), and on 21 May 2026 that Neom had terminated the Neom Connector High-Speed Line contract effective May 27, 2026 with works about 20% complete and a residual backlog of about EUR 1bn, concluding all Webuild activities for Neom[2]
- Wider context given: the PIF is to stop funding LIV Golf after $5 billion, the Mukaab in Riyadh is on hold, and Saudi Arabia faces widening deficits and the Iran war; NEOM did not respond to a request for comment[3]
- The pin's own source, The B1M's "Is The Line Really Dead?", published 2025-12-18, predates the halt by five months and asks "Can Saudi Arabia's mega build survive 2026?"; its page gives no cost figures, lengths or completion dates[1]
References 387% CONFIDENCE
The first entry is always the pin's source. Overall confidence is a weighted average of how firmly each reference supports the start and end times used above; a reference counts half as much for every 180 days older than the newest.
- [1]90%youtube.com/watch?v=zFVYgZMEOFgyoutube.com· Posted Sep 14, 2026· Starts May 22, 2026 ✓· 43% of score
Happened as dated, per the source: "Saudi's NEOM halts work on The Line until after 2030."
- [2]78%Further doubts over Saudi Arabia's Neom gigaprojectnewcivilengineer.com· Published Jun 1, 2026· 29% of score
New Civil Engineer's headline, "Further Doubts Over Saudi Arabia's NEOM Gigaproject", with a stored 1 June 2026 publish date, follows the pin's stored 22 May 2026 date by about ten days as follow-up coverage of the halt, though the page itself returned a 403 error on this fetch.
- [3]90%Exclusive: Saudi's NEOM halts work on The Line until after 2030semafor.com· Published May 22, 2026· 28% of score
Semafor's report, published 22 May 2026, states NEOM "has delayed further work on The Line... until at least after 2030", an exact match to the pin's stored date and the outlet's own original reporting.
Suggest a correction
Something missing or wrong? Say it in your own words: a link that backs this pin up, a different start or end date and why, or a fact it lacks or gets wrong. The AI checks it against this pin's sources, searches for better ones, and adds any page that backs you up. The pin's own sources still count most.
