clm-10b74f8f46f563ae
quantitative
Pitched in January 2021 as a 170km linear city with zero cars, zero streets and zero carbon emissions
Permanent project revision
Revision 2026-10-11-baseline · effective 2026-10-11
Current revision. This is the snapshot used by the live entity page.
Created the first structured Evidence Passport with 12 claims and 16 source dossiers.
sha256:7faa3ec4b39fa1573fa353af851fa877099bcbac6d6f047071a0badbae9dc732
add /evidencePassport — Added claim-level evidence mapping and source dossiers.add /revisionHistory — Established a permanent, hash-addressed baseline revision.The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.
clm-10b74f8f46f563ae
quantitative
Pitched in January 2021 as a 170km linear city with zero cars, zero streets and zero carbon emissions
clm-3f4bd1e0107fcc46
quantitative
nine million residents eventually, by NEOM's July 2022 design announcement
clm-fe2c96925a32916b
quantitative
reported in April 2024 to have been scaled back to a 2.4km first phase for fewer than 300,000 people by 2030, against an earlier 1.5 million (Bloomberg)
clm-ae428e7bab52cb73
quantitative
By November 2024 Reuters' sources said work was focused solely on that 2.4km stretch and its 2034 World Cup stadium
clm-4b42566c564b5581
quantitative
In July 2025 the Public Investment Fund put the project under a strategic review by outside consultants, which NEOM called common practice
clm-02366221eb4e39c5
quantitative
CNBC reported large sections frozen with the workforce cut by 35% since April
clm-f9d5a4f8b4b31abc
quantitative
In May 2026 Semafor reported further work pushed back until after 2030
clm-be052bddf0fd75d5
quantitative
PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan had said in April that no NEOM project was cancelled, but that finishing The Line by 2030 was 'good to have, but it's not a must have'
clm-a1f614a93a94ac0c
quantitative
In July 2026 NEOM's own web page dropped the nine-million and car-free promises for a 'phased, demand-led approach'
clm-f6f07689b37704c2
descriptive
in October Reuters reported the stadium shelved indefinitely
clm-b7b1901637945095
quantitative
within four years The Line went from a 170km blueprint to a 2.4km first phase and then to a site halted until after 2030
clm-ac29792d51ee2a41
quantitative
The often-cited $50bn is NEOM's own count of infrastructure spending across the whole region — its deputy CEO's figure in January 2025, a month before its chief development officer put the same tally at $37bn
This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.
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sha256:7faa3ec4b39fa1573fa353af851fa877099bcbac6d6f047071a0badbae9dc732
src-7bb9a047278c47f0Operator page as rewritten in 2026: The Line is 'a core component of NEOM's long-term vision' that 'is advancing through a phased, demand-led approach'. The page names no length, resident number or completion date.
src-a693e9062ea9b0d1Broke the 2024 scale-back: officials expected 2.4km of The Line by 2030 and fewer than 300,000 residents, down from a hoped-for 1.5 million; at least one contractor had begun dismissing workers.
src-22cfc69d023bc2f6Trade report relaying Bloomberg: the 170km plan 'has been curtailed to 2.4km long', residents by 2030 cut from 1.5 million to fewer than 300,000, the 2024 NEOM budget not yet approved.
src-26f5c4b3ff9227fcEncyclopedia article with the project timeline, including the 2024 scale-back, the 2025 review and the May 2026 Semafor report.
src-545cf2ae2911ca2bLaunch report from the Saudi Press Agency statement: a 170km belt of communities 'without cars and roads', 'zero cars, zero streets, and zero Carbon emissions', 380,000 jobs and SR180bn of GDP by 2030, a city of a million residents.
src-d18a9c33f56d4e8cDesign reveal: The Line 'is only 200 meters wide, 170 kilometres long and 500 meters above sea level' and 'will eventually accommodate 9 million residents' on a 34 km² footprint, with a five-minute walk to all facilities and a 20-minute end-to-end rail transit.
src-24c952c4209b50adThree sources a day after CEO Nadhmi al-Nasr's departure: NEOM 'scaled down and broken into chunks'; work on The Line 'solely focused on finishing a 2.4 kilometre stretch including a stadium' for the 2034 World Cup final; a consultant said The Line alone 'was going to cost over a trillion which was why it's been scaled back'.
src-0a24b8eb39441d1dNEOM deputy CEO Rayan Fayez at Davos: 'More than $50 billion has been spent so far building the basic infrastructure' of the NEOM region.
src-8856565446f7e79bChief development officer Denis Hickey at the PIF Private Sector Forum: NEOM 'has spent more than SAR140 billion ($37 billion) on infrastructure development so far'; The Line 'to be built in modular phases, is scheduled to open its first phase in 2030'.
src-d6d3d0ba38c82862PIF, which 'so far has been providing the funding for its construction', was weighing workforce cuts and relocating 1,000+ staff to Riyadh; PIF's head of audit was leading a review of progress and spending; Bloomberg had reported a consultant being sought for a 'strategic review' of The Line; focus had shifted to 'completing a smaller part of the towers by 2030'.
src-ceb797a3388d225fNEOM confirmed the strategic review and 'described the strategic checks as common practice'; per Bloomberg, PIF 'hired external consultants to assess the viability of the linear city'; per CNBC, 'development has been frozen on large sections of The Line, with the number of active construction workers cut by 35% since April 2025'; per the WSJ, an internal report put NEOM's end-state cost at $8.8 trillion by 2080, with a $370bn first phase.
src-028a0aa7acad8bffAFP report of PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan's speech and Al Arabiya interview: 'No project in Neom has been cancelled'; 'Has anything been postponed? Yes, definitely'; 'Is it necessary for The Line to be completed by 2030? I don't think so. It's good to have, but it's not a must have.' Also records the 2022 pitch of over one million residents by 2030 and nine million by 2045.
src-3c7a5c8249f15b30Trade roundup: 'Construction on The Line was suspended by Public Investment Fund (PIF) in September 2025, following a year-long strategic review. Only approximately 2.4 km of foundation work has been completed against the original 170 km vision'; the 2029 Asian Winter Games at Trojena postponed indefinitely in January 2026; NEOM cancelled dam and tunnel contracts.
src-56dc43b38a87ed01Exclusive from people familiar with the matter: NEOM 'has delayed further work on The Line ... until at least after 2030' as PIF shifts spending to ports and data centres; the twin skyscrapers are being 'significantly' redesigned; NEOM-wide residents by 2030 now targeted at up to 100,000, after 1.5 million and then 300,000. NEOM did not respond to a request for comment.
src-1c7f449f83079c36NEOM rewrote its website: renderings of the 500m glass structure replaced by landscape images; The Line now 'a core component' of a 'phased, demand-led approach'; 'Earlier references to housing 9 million people, operating without roads or cars and running entirely on renewable energy, no longer appear'. A NEOM spokesperson: 'We routinely update our digital platforms ... this should not be interpreted as signalling any change to our long-term vision'.
src-e6f65f9c8385b053Relays Reuters (4 Oct 2026): plans for the $2.5bn, 46,000-seat stadium inside The Line 'have now been shelved indefinitely'; MEED Projects lists it 'on hold' with no completion date; Al-Rumayyan 'said in April that The Line was no longer a priority and was not vital before 2030' while denying cancellations.