Saudi Arabia's The Line is collapsing into a hyphen

"The futuristic linear city known as The Line, originally designed to stretch 150 miles across the desert, is scrapping its sci-fi ambitions to become a far smaller project focused on industrial sectors, says the FT. It's a rumor that the Saudis originally dismissed when The Guardian first reported on it in 2024. The redesign confirms what skeptics have long suspected: the laws of physics and economics have finally breached the walls"

"The glossy renderings of the mile-long skyscraper and vertical forests that was The Line are now dissolving into a pragmatic, if desperate, attempt to salvage the sunk costs. The development, once framed as a " civilization revolution" was originally imagined as a 105-mile long, 1,640-foot high, 656-foot wide car-free smart city designed to house 9 million residents. The redesign pivots toward making Neom a hub for data centers to support the kingdom's aggressive AI push."

Saudi leadership significantly downscaled The Line after a year-long review driven by financial constraints and operational losses. The original vision for a vast, car-free linear megacity with skyscrapers, vertical forests, and millions of residents has been abandoned in favor of a much smaller, industrially focused development. Neom's redevelopment priorities now emphasize coastal data centers to support an aggressive AI strategy, leveraging seawater cooling and existing infrastructure. Years of cost overruns and management chaos produced major cutbacks, including plans to limit the initial phase to roughly 2.4 kilometers by 2030, reducing projected population targets and salvaging sunk investments.

Read at Fast Company