Neom (; ; stylized as NEOM) is a megaproject and planned city in Tabuk Province in Saudi Arabia. Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, the project's main supporter and chairman, launched it in 2017.
The project was part of Saudi Vision 2030, with the intent being to diversify the country’s oil-dependent economy by creating a sustainable, carbon-neutral smart city powered by renewable energy and advanced technology. At its peak, Neom was the world's largest construction project. The site is at the northern tip of the Red Sea, east of Egypt across the Gulf of Aqaba and close to Jordan. Neom's total planned area is . Planners envisioned multiple regions, including a floating industrial complex, a global trade hub, and tourist resorts.
However, Neom faced heavy criticism for its unrealistic plans. Costs were originally estimated at $1.6 trillion, growing to $8.8 trillion by 2025—more than 25 times the annual Saudi governmental budget.
By July 2022, only two buildings had been constructed, and most of the project area remained bare desert. By 2024, there were reports that Neom's size and scale would be sharply reduced from original plans. An internal audit of Neom found extensive financial problems, including "evidence of deliberate manipulation" by Neom management. By 2025, new contracts for Neom ceased and there was no mention of Neom in Saudi Arabia's pre-budget statement for 2026. In March 2026, large contracts for extensive work were cancelled.
Neom has also been criticized for environmental destruction and human rights violations. There are reports of high rates of death among workers on-site. An estimated 20,000 people are subject to forced displacement, and multiple villages have been razed. Members of the local Howeitat tribe protested against their forced expulsion. Howeitat members have been killed resisting evictions, including activist Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti, who was killed by Saudi security forces under disputed circumstances. Three other members of the tribe were sentenced to death.
Etymology Neom means "new future". The first three letters are the Greek prefix neo meaning "new", and the fourth letter, M, represents the Arabic word for "future" (, ).
History Salman announced plans for the planned city at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh on October 24, 2017. He said that it would operate independently from the "existing governmental framework" with its own tax and labour laws and an "autonomous judicial system". Egypt announced in 2018 that it would contribute some land to the Neom project.
The initiative to create the region of Neom emerged from Saudi Vision 2030, a plan to reduce Saudi Arabia's dependence on oil, diversify its economy, and develop public-service sectors. According to project announcements, robots are expected to perform functions such as security, logistics, home delivery, and caregiving and for the region to be powered solely by renewable energy sources, including wind and solar power.
On January 29, 2019, the Saudi government announced that it had established a closed joint-stock company named Neom. The company, which is solely dedicated to developing the NEOM economic zone, is wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund, the Saudi government’s sovereign wealth fund.
Klaus Kleinfeld was announced by Mohammed bin Salman as the inaugural director for the NEOM project upon its launch. Kleinfeld was then announced as an advisor to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Nadhmi Al-Nasr became the CEO of Neom.
In July 2020, Neom, the American company Air Products & Chemicals, Inc., and Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power announced plans to build what was described as the world's largest green hydrogen plant in Saudi Arabia, at Neom. Neom is an equal partner in the US$5 billion project.
In 2023, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman responded to critics of the project, stating: "They say in a lot of projects that happen in Saudi Arabia, it can't be done, this is very ambitious. They can keep saying that. And we can keep proving them wrong." The Wall Street Journal reported that an internal audit of the gigaproject found "evidence of deliberate manipulation" of finances by "certain members of management." A Neom spokeswoman stated the WSJ was "incorrectly interpreting" and misrepresenting the figures. By 2025, few new contracts for Neom were reported, and the project was not mentioned in Saudi Arabia's pre-budget statement for 2026.
In October 2024, an opening party for Sindalah, a luxury island destination, was held, the first in the Neom region. Following the event, Sindalah was reported by multiple outlets to have received only limited or invitation-only access and remained closed to the general public as of 2025, with its full operational status not confirmed in independent reporting. A few weeks after the opening party, Neom CEO Al-Nasr was succeeded by Aiman Al-Mudaifer, head of the Local Real Estate division at Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.
According to former Neom employees, the working culture resembled Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Emperor’s New Clothes", with concerns that dissent was ignored or punished. According to the Financial Times, in 2025, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as chair of the project, proposed ambitious ideas that some staff expressed concerns about in terms of feasibility.
Planned regions
Full list +NameAnnounced The Line 10 January 2021 Oxagon 16 November 2021 Trojena 3 March 2022 Sindalah 5 December 2022Magna regions Leyja 15 October 2023 Epicon 15 November 2023 Siranna 29 November 2023 Utamo 13 December 2023 Norlana 27 December 2023 Aquellum10 January 2024 Zardun 24 January 2024 Xaynor 7 February 2024 Elanan 21 February 2024 Gidori 6 March 2024 Treyam 20 March 2024 Jaumur 8 May 2024
The Line
Neom Bay
The development work of the project's first phase, Neom Bay, was planned to start in the first quarter of 2019 with completion by 2020. The developments were to include constructing the airport at Sharma, which would operate regular commercial flights between Riyadh and Neom. The plan of Neom Bay's developments also involves building the first residential area in Neom as part of Phase 1.
Neom Bay Airport In June 2019, it was announced that the Neom Bay Airport would begin commercial flight traffic after the first phase of the airport was completed with a runway length of . The first commercial flight was by Saudia from Riyadh. The planned airport has been registered by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) with the code NUM.
Oxagon Oxagon (originally named Neom Industrial City) was announced as a floating industrial complex in the shape of an octagon. According to the announcement, it will be located around north of the town of Duba, and cover roughly of land, of which approximately will form the city. Oxagon is designed to focus on manufacturing, industrial research and development, incorporating the former Duba port, which has been renamed the "port of Neom". The plans for the complex include a desalination plant, a hydrogen plant, and an oceanographic research center. It will also be home to the cognitive multinational company Tonomus (originally NEOM Tech & Digital Company), which is the first subsidiary company to evolve from NEOM.
On 16 December 2022, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources, the Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zones and Neom signed a memorandum of understanding to facilitate collaboration and legislation in support of Neom's Future Factories Program.
Trojena
On 3 March 2022, the Trojena project was launched, which could become the first major outdoor skiing destination in the Arabian Peninsula. The project's site is about from the Gulf of Aqaba coast in the Sarat Mountains, with elevations ranging from . Although it is in the desert, the site's climate is considerably cooler than is the rest of Neom's territory. Ennismore, a lifestyle and hospitality company, was announced as the inaugural partner with its brands 25hours Hotels and Morgans Originals. In September 2023, Zaha Hadid Architects designed a tall skyscraper for Trojena which will stand on a mountain overlooking an artificial lake. Renders of the skyscraper, which will be connected to the lakeside development by a cable car, showed a crystalline structure made of numerous columns that narrow towards the peak.
Sindalah
In December 2022, Neom announced plans for Sindalah, an luxury resort complex on an island off the Neom coast. It is planned to include an 86-berth marina and three luxury hotels, with a reported capacity of up to 2,400 visitors per day. A nine-hole golf course overlooking the sea was constructed in 2023.
Aquellum In January 2024, Neom announced Aquellum, a "subterranean digitalized community of the future" that would "invert architectural principles to integrate with nature". Described as an "upside-down skyscraper", it is planned to be dug into a mountain, with access from an underwater square.
Leyja Leyja is a planned tourist destination that is designed to support the Saudi Vision 2030 plan for a sustainable tourism industry. According to the Saudi Press Agency, 95 percent of Leyja's land area will be preserved for natural space. Leyja includes three Hotels which are the Adventure Hotel, designed by Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), Oasis Hotel, designed by Mario Cucinella Architects (MCA), and the Wellness Hotel, designed by Killa Design. The hotels will provide 120 boutique rooms and suites.
Elanan Announced on February 24, 2024, Elanan is a planned 80 room and suite ultra-luxury wellness retreat for guests to find "peace, rest, and rejuvenation" and is designed to blend with the surrounding nature with Mark Foster Gage as the project's architect.
Agriculture Neom plans for of the surrounding land to become agricultural fields and to rely heavily on genetically engineered crops.
Utilities A subsidiary, ENOWA, has been founded to provide renewable energy, green hydrogen, and zero waste desalination.
International relations In May 2022, Indian conglomerate Larsen & Toubro was awarded the contract to construct a 2,930-megawatt solar power plant, a 1,370-megawatt wind farm, a 400-megawatt battery energy storage system, and a power transmission network of about .
After opening its first international office in London in November 2023, Neom opened its second one in New York in February 2024.
===Suggestion of Israeli cooperation===
Despite historically antagonistic relations, Israel is speculated to play a significant role in the development of NEOM, with some suggesting that Saudi Arabia may be expressing interest in Israeli intellectual capabilities for this purpose. It is also suggested that Israel has reciprocated this interest. In line with this, Saudi Arabia is reported to hope to establish an economic partnership with Israel to promote NEOM's economic development. In particular, analysts suggest that Saudi Arabia may be interested in enhancing economic relations with Israel's high-tech industries, which are essential to NEOM's technological vision. According to a report in an Israeli newspaper, there is purportedly evidence of coordination between Arab businessmen and diplomats in Tel Aviv, with companies in Israel said to be prepared to secure contracts worth billions of dollars. The Saudi Arabian government is also reportedly involved in such communications. Consequently, analysts have proposed that NEOM could serve as a potential impetus for normalisation between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Sponsorship