Saudi Arabia’s The Line just pulled off the most expensive pivot in construction history. What started as a 500+ billion dollar sci-fi fever dream—a 170-kilometer linear city housing 9 million people in car-free, climate-controlled corridors—has collapsed into something far more mundane: a data center hub with an ocean view.
Construction officially suspended in September 2025, with the project now scaled back to a mere 2.4 kilometers by 2030. That’s like promising Netflix the entire catalog and delivering a single season of a cancelled show.
The original vision included:
- 500-meter-tall mirror-clad skyscrapers
- Maglev transit
- AI-powered everything
Today’s reality? Industrial facilities leveraging coastal water cooling for server farms.
When Fantasy Meets Physics
Engineering challenges and cost overruns forced the kingdom’s hand.
The numbers tell the whole story. Internal audits revealed the full project would cost $8.8 trillion—roughly 25 times Saudi Arabia’s annual budget. Even the first phase ballooned to $370 billion before anyone figured out basic logistics like how to cool a 170-kilometer glass structure in desert heat.
The mirrored walls would have created a bird migration disaster zone, while sand and extreme temperatures threatened to cripple the proposed transit systems.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly admitted “flexibility for cancellations” in a Shura Council address, diplomatic speak for “this isn’t happening.” CEO Nadhmi al-Nasr departed in November 2024 amid allegations, leaving successor Aiman al-Mudaifer to oversee what officials now call a “modest industrial focus.”
The Pragmatic Pivot
Data centers offer better returns than utopian architecture.
The pivot makes cold business sense. Saudi Arabia’s coastal location provides natural cooling advantages for power-hungry AI infrastructure. With global data center demand exploding and the kingdom sitting on cheap energy, server farms beat speculative urban planning every time.
This retreat from sci-fi ambition signals broader trouble for Vision 2030’s mega-projects. The Trojena ski resort shrunk significantly, while the Sindalah luxury island sits largely idle due to construction flaws.
The Public Investment Fund wrote down $8 billion in 2025 as oil prices hover around $71 per barrel, forcing a reality check on futuristic spending.
Sometimes the most revolutionary thing you can do is admit when the revolution isn’t working. Your skepticism about breathless tech announcements just got validated on a half-trillion-dollar scale.
