Neom: An Update on the World's Most Ridiculous City (It's Still Ridiculous...)

two years ago we and mega projects made a video our subject a new ambitious and perhaps somewhat hairbrained idea that had emerged out of Sai Arabia that country's leader Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman and his allies had cooked up a vision for a planned city its name was to be neon and it was to rival the great Global cities of the world in its scale while blowing them all away when it came to Technology Innovation and just sheer Ingenuity it was to be a Powerhouse in every way conceiv able a generational accomplishment in human development a new wonder of the world and the critical achievements that would turn both Saudi Arabia and its Crown Prince into Heroes that would guide Humanity through the 21st century now it's two years later and the reality is anything but the blind ambition that was going to build neon has instead been frustrated the adoring World public has since started laughing and the vast stretch of desert where this whole apparatus was supposed to come online in just a few months time now sits all but empty cleared of its humanity and its potential in order to serve a vision that may never be realized this is the story of neon an idea that was supposed to change everything and this is also the story of neon or one of the most spectacular failures of human engineering this side of the Industrial Revolution [Music] just before we continue with today's video let me ask a question ever feel like you're online you're like oh no my ISP is definitely watching what I'm doing they're selling my data to Big corporations cuz that apparently is a thing it shouldn't be a thing but it is and you can make it not a thing with today's fantastic sponsor surf shark surf shark take all of your data all of your internet activity and they encrypt it and Port it through a VPN so your ISP no nosy buggers they don't know what you're doing online it's all safe it's all good plus it's incredibly easy to use you just download it whether that's on your PC your it works on everything I mean it's not going to work on like some like 1990s calculator but if you've got an iPhone if you've got an Android PC Mac it's going to work you're going to be fine it's ridiculously easy to use you just install it you click a button and then you're wherever you want to be want Netflix from America just boom click on Miami or whichever American city you prefer and you are there getting a whole new different Netflix Library it's lately I've been doing it for Disney plus Boston Legal a show that I've been rewatching fantastic show only available on UK Disney plus so I've been like surf sharking over to the UK and be like yeah I'll get that thank you very much so remember enter the promo code Mega for an extra 3 months for free at Surf shark. deals meega stay safe out there in the wild internet and thank you to Surf shark for [Music] sponsoring now look before we can get into the Weeds on what exactly went wrong with neon we're going to take a few moments to explore what this place was supposed to be and yes we've already done a prior episode on this monstrosity but we're going to dive into it here again for two reasons First Watch time and second the Ambitions surrounding yam have gotten a lot bigger since that first time we covered the project named as a portmanto with the ancient Greek prefix Neo meaning new and the Arabic word for future must Kabal n was intended to be just that an ultra future fut istic City that promised improvements on every aspect of the cities that we less enlightened humans call home the heart of the grand neon project day is the same that it's always been the line a concept for a plan City spread out over a linear stretch of land 170 km or 110 M long by just 200 M or 660 ft wide for some perspective here that's long enough to stretch from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast anywhere in the nation of Panama but not wide enough to hold a 10,000 football stadium it was envisioned as a City without cars without roads where everything you'd need over the course of your daily life be it occupational educational recreational or otherwise was just a Brisk 5-minute walkway organized around a high-speed train that could take residents from one tip of neom to the other in just 20 minutes the city would be monitored constantly by a predictive AI that would you sophisticate Technologies to ensure that everything inside neom was going according to plan or at least that was the plan last time we put out a video on this subject but we're pleased to report that just four months after that first episode came out Saudi Arabia announced a revision from then on the line wasn't actually going to be individual buildings at all but instead one single continuous building stretching the entire 170 kilm length of the line on the outside it would be encased an entirely glass mirrored exterior with the capacity to house 9 million residents it would be a continuous ice scraper Rising high enough that the Empire State Building could not hope to compare that Mega building would keep the same general idea as the line had started with where communities would be arranged in such a way that all the basic Services you could ever need would be within 5 minutes walking distance of course building a 170 km long glass incase structure comes with quite a few technical challenges especially when you add in the effects of the blazing hot Saudi Sun but that was nothing that the Great minds of the project couldn't handle Beyond just the line Saudi Arabia would have built a second new age monstrosity this one bearing the name of oxyon intended to be a massive industrial complex situated conveniently between the line and the Suz Canal the eight-sided oxyon Hub would have integrated an existing Seaside Port into a fast growing development octagon most touted features included its integrated Distribution Systems its Net Zero carbon emissions its completely automated port and its new record as the world's last largest floating structure like the line it was meant to be walkable and when people needed to come buy land from elsewhere in Saudi Arabia they'd do so with hydr owered means of Transport its deeper details were a mess of 2021 era buzzwords from The Internet of Things to machine learning and more all focused toward creating a center of industrial Innovation that could of course become a new Global leader and even that still wouldn't be enough for neon since the publication of our original episode on the project a whole range of new promises have come from the Saudi government all with fancy names and concept art to go with them Trina is supposed to be a massive winter destination just 50 mi from the sea featuring Alpine and adventure sports Calo is Promised as a high-end island vacation Hotpot with over 150 moing points for the world's most luxurious super Yachts Epicor will allegedly include an ultra luxury hotel with an architecture that simply must be seen in order to be believed with the intent of attracting quote free ERS and free Spirits uto is a quote theater of the future carved inside of a mountain aquum is advertised as quote a Subterranean digitalized community of the future while gdor Community apparently intended just for golfers will feature 1990 glass encased Apartments hanging on the underside of a massive arch for some reason and even that is not the end of what Saudi Arabia has envisioned for neon it was going to get air taxis that would Ferry people across the whole neon complex with operational air taxes supposed to be flying by 2024 NE was supposed to be covered in a heavy veil of quantum cyber security in order to defend against cyber attacks it was to be surrounded by Lush fields of crops growing all that was needed to sustain the people living on the line and elsewhere NE was going to rely on cloud seating to deliver consistent rainfall it would feature a Jurassic Park style attraction with gigantic robot dinosaurs it would include a space to have robot cage matches and the sand on its beaches would glow in the dark there was even supposed to be a giant artificial glowing moon in the sky because Humanity's current moon was apparently just uh not Innovative enough or something perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that the plan has drawn Skeptics as well as supporters many with insight into what it would take to produce something of neom scale and ambition and they pointed out that there's really not much evidence to suggest that Saudi Arabia could make this happen while any other Nation architectural firm or Engineering Corporation would agree that it's not feasible to put it simply the technical challenges that stands between Muhammad bin Salan and a fully completed n and not the sort of problems that get solved with a go-getter attitude and some self belief but over the past several years Saudi Arabia inserts itself into sports from golf and football to mixed martial arts and boxing and continues to heighten its geopolitical powers and increase its leverage across the world it's kept just as clear of a focus on neon after a yearl long stream of glitzy promotional videos new concept art and announcements of new aspects to this rapidly evolving Vision it's become clear as day neom is the Cent Beast to it all the great experiment by which Saudi Arabia's entire Venture into the 21st century shall be [Music] judged so how's it going well actually it's going pretty badly it's difficult to point to an initial cause for concern around neom seeing as there's a good argument to be made that the entire thing is caused for concern but the report that really hit neon where it hurts is one that came out on April the 5th of this very year 2024 the report came by way of Bloomberg News or one of the world's leading voices when it comes to reports about what the world's crazy Rich oil and Technology Barons are up to and the information it contained was stunningly bad according to the report Anonymous figures in the know Audi Arabia had reported that the plan to have a partially built line rising up of the ground by 2030 home to and a half million residents at that time had been revised sharply downward current expectations on the resident count in Nom by 2030 have decreased to 300,000 a mere 1/5 of the prior figure by that time the line still allegedly intended to stretch 170 km by the time it's complete will be just 2.4 km long or about a mile and a half because of the cuts to the project contractors have begun laying off workers around the project as high ranking members of the Saudi government begun to scramble for ways to either Salvage their ambitious Vision 2030 program or mitigate the damage that might come from falling way short of the mark now just because the line is looking a lot smaller doesn't mean that the entire neon project has stalled Cala for example the luxury Island Resort that we mentioned is expected to open its doors later this year elsewhere Saudi Investment of some 8 billion usar has resulted in the construction of vast solar and wind farms which are intended to create quote green hydrogen that Saudi Arabia might start exporting AS Global oil sales decrease but those successes come against a backdrop of far more concerning failures across the vast majority of the line of not the entirety of the land currently being developed the task at hand is still a matter of Earthworks and Foundation Building satellite imagery from 20124 shows no structure yet formed on the land designated for the line just some gated communities and officers for the people working on it the at imagery clearly shows the foundational work done on the designated stretch of soil but nothing more elsewhere the Nom airport which is operational at this time only serves four Airlines with connecting flights to only six cities just one of which London is outside of the Gulf States Saudi Arabia's Finance Minister Muhammad Al jadan has recently conceded that it'll take past 2030 to even build the requisite factories and human infrastructure to build large parts of Nom though Al jadan in those same statements was careful to claim that delays on the project are a good thing in the long term as of now there doesn't even seem to be a plan on how oxyon the world's largest floating structure is supposed to be able to well float unsurprisingly Saudi officials have pushed back hard on Bloomberg's claims since they were published Saudi Arabia's economic Minister Fel Al Ibraham has insisted that neom is not scaling back saying to an interviewer named Dan Murphy with CNBC quoting here all projects moving full steam ahead we set out to do something unprecedented and we're doing something unprecedented and we will deliver something that's unprecedented for neom the projects the intended scale is continuing as planned there is no change in scale we point out of course that there's quite a lot of breathing room between we will deliver something that's unprecedented and we will deliver a 170 km long glass encased AI City a 1. mile version of the thing still would be unprecedented we do agree except it would simultaneously be unprecedented and roughly 1.4% of the vision that was initially promised but double speak or not Al Ibrahim clearly seeks to convey the message that nothing is wrong with the neon project framing any potential changes as an action to heighten their economic effects quoting here again we see feedback from the market we see more interest from the investors and will always prioritize to where we can optimize for optimal economic impact today the economy in the kingdom is growing faster but we don't want to overheat it we don't want to deliver these projects at the cost of importing too much against our own interest now we're at Mega projects obviously don't want to speculate too much into the logic that might drive Saudi Arabia's ministers to insist that their project is going to hit the initial aim set out for it when failure to meet those standards appears highly likely perhaps they know something we don't and they have a secret plan that involves doing foundational work until the last three months before their deadline and somehow making the entirety of the line pop up from the Sands right afterwards as if by Magic but more likely Saudi Arabia is badly in need of investors and saying anything that might reduce investor confidence now would make it all but certain that the line won't be recoverable if it continues what appears to be its current trajectory falling way short of what Muhammad bin Salan had [Music] promised so how does this happen how do we take a project of such stunning ambition go to all the trouble of Designing it hyping it and continuing to add to it and then come to the brink of ruin all in just the span of a couple of years as it turns out there's a range of answers that help explain just how Saudi Arabia got here and like Spears against a woolly mammoth it wasn't just one well-placed hit that brought the whole thing down it was a long painful Cascade of factors that once they all stacked up together simply could not be overcome perhaps the largest issues are the ones are wrapped up in Saudi Arabia's Sovereign wealth fund called the public investment fund or PF just this year Saudi Arabia claimed that the pif controls an estimated set of assets worth about $925 billion us but according to Bloomberg the Pi's cash reserves are dipping low with as little as $5 billion worth of cash on hand it hasn't been that low since 2020 when Saudi Arabia began releasing data on the Pi's Holdings that's just a pittance in comparison with what Muhammad bin soman himself has said would be the total cost of just phase one of building neom the Saudi real equivalent of 320 billion US half of the bill is expected to be covered by the pif which at present can cover a little under 5% without that money Yom can't be constructed it's just that simple at present the pif is working overtime to pull in investors and raise Capital however they can B Salan as a reference the need for external funding for years but at present it seems that those needs far outstrip what Saudi Arabia has been able to generate via investors outside its own government but even there this explanation leaves a little to be desired after all we can presume that at some point somebody who's good at accounting inside Saudi Arabia looked at pif looked at neom and thought that it was a good idea to Greenlight the project so well what went wrong between then and now to answer that question it's worth taking a closer look at why exactly Saudi Arabia wanted to build neom in the first place diversification Saudi Arabia is a very very wealthy Nation pulling incredible income to its coffers on a year-to-year basis but for only one key reason oil Saudi Arabia isn't just an oil producing Nation it is the oil producing Nation falling only behind Russia and the United States in barrels produced per day but way are pacing them per capita the trouble with that is that the world is in the process of weaning itself off of oil and even if it wasn't oil is still a finite resource with production expected to wne over the next few decades Saudi Arabia has the wealth to invest in a future in which it holds reasonably steady but if it wants to keep growing and getting richer as all nations do then oil just wasn't going to do the job that's where neon would come in while neon is just one part of a much larger strategy it is undoubtedly the most important piece of the overall Vision Saudi Arabia wants to expand into technology especially clean tech transportation and Logistics Global sports and entertainment tourism and luxury services and Entrepreneurship RIT large along with other efforts that have less to do with neom including Mining and petrochemical production however all those efforts draw on the same Saudi wealth Holdings most of all the PF and with so many concurrent industry overhauls Mega projects International Acquisitions and Investments and more all happening at once the well is starting to run dry in an autocratic Nation where all individual and Collective successes and failures depend on the favor of the Crown Prince it's important to propose and complete projects that can woo Muhammad bin Salman trouble is bin Salman is known to have an eye for the extravagant and Saudi Arabia can only support so many wild ideas at once the nation's coffers are very deep but they are not bottomless but the numbers alone don't tell the whole story apparently n has also developed a workplace culture that sent both foreign Executives and expat laborers running for the hills the problems here seem to stem from one nadm alasa CEO of the neon projects and Ally of the Crown Prince according to a wider sources Al Nasser is known to be very difficult to work with going out of his way to scare and belittle employees especially foreigners after those foreigners including high level Engineers Architects urban planners and other experts were poached from Western companies to come and work on the project anassa might not even disagree with that assessment according to sources quoted by The Wall Street Journal anassa gave this Gem of a quote during one NE meeting I drive everybody like a slave when they drop down dead I celebrate that's how I do my projects former Executives have dinged our NASA for everything from disparagement of his colleagues to demeaning them outright to engaging in and furthering discrimination within his organization those are problems that haven't got better with news pertaining to Saudi Arabia's broader human rights record for example the country's assassination of the journalist Kamar kogi in 2018 which led to a number of previously involved figures deciding to give neom some distance meanwhile reports of abysmal working conditions for Laborers in during the preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup have led to increased concerns for the tens of thousands of laborers working across the neon project although the conditions they face are currently unknown and the people working on neon aren't the only ones that find themselves in the crosshairs of the Project's leaders also in the crossair are the haat large tribe of people who had a substantial population residing on their historic Homeland in Saudi Arabia trouble is that's also where neom is being built the early reports were deeply concerning but not necessarily unexpected the hoat were issue eviction orders as Saudi Arabia has tried to force them off their land offering badly inadequate compensation in exchange but then a hoat villager was killed by Saudi Security Forces after blowing the whistle on Saudi Arabia's actions and several were sentenced to multi-decade prison sentences after being accused of terrorism and resistance to the forc evictions the three others have been sentenced to death with those sentences being upheld by an appeals court a panel of un experts assesses that those prisoners are being tortured into making forced confessions in order to justify imprisoning and killing them as of now those evictions of over 6,000 harat from their lands have yet to be remedied in any way for their part Saudi Arabia denies having sentenced the men to death and claims that they have connections to alqaeda in the Islamic State of course these are all deep and serious problems that can still be papered over by simply throwing money at the project but not only is Saudi Arabia short on cash but it's also taken a recent blow in in the loss of investment from a very important partner just as Saudi Arabia was In the Heat of its ambition in designing neon it was also engaged in a process of diplomatic normalization with Israel the nation that's long had a tense and often adversarial relationship with the Saudi Kingdom with the prospect of normalization came major interest from Israeli investors who were more than happy to help the leaders of both Nations make the middle easts two most formidable economies more interdependent but since the start of the Israel Hamas war in 2023 that normalization process has been put on hold and with it all the money that might have gone into neom from Israel is nowhere to be found and lastly ne's got to deal with the ultimate question at the heart of all plan cities sure it's cool to build them but does anybody actually want to live there similar to the United Arab emirates' use of man-made Islands packed with luxury villas ne's focus on luxury vacationing is a clear attempt to attract the super rich who may be enticed to further by things like a permissive tax code and a loose legal system both of those by the way are features expected to be a part of neomin practice but Nom's focus on an AI powered City collecting immense amounts of data from residents including from inside their smartphones and homes has not been taken in good faith by people who might otherwise consider living there for a nation with the human rights record and autocratic Tendencies of Saudi Arabia letting an all powerful AI see inside one's home and one's Communications is a really big ask the idea that that Yom would be a surveillance City that works for its residence isn't necessarily a false statement but it's proved far less appealing the Muhammad bin Salan and his top AIDS might have [Music] expected so when we zoom out for a moment and consider what might be next for neon there are a few confounding factors that prevent us from establishing a clear answer Chief among those factors is the Saudi government itself according to Nom's website its press materials statements regarding the project from Saudi decision makers and more everything's just fine looking at the available data the disclosures from available sources that are deemed reputable and the visible progress so far that doesn't appear to be the case so at this critical juncture with Saudi Arabia having poured gargantuan amounts of capital into the project already one of two things must be true either Saudi Arabia has a way to dig out of this or they don't in the event that Muhammad bin Salman has a way out be it a way strictly to save face or to actually get back on Pace for what neom was supposed to be then good for Saudi Arabia perhaps the answer will come in the form of a new source of investment a cash infusion for the PF from elsewhere in Saudi Arabia or leveraging assets within the PF that are currently tied up elsewhere right now the pif holds ownership shares in a wide variety of Ventures from London's heo airport the video game companies Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard to Boeing to Disney to BP to the Newcastle United football team how important those assets are to Saudi Arabia only the Crown Prince can say but if the nation intends to go all or nothing on neon there's plenty to sacrifice in order to make that happen the other possibility is that Saudi Arabia doesn't have a plan to make this work perhaps they're hoping that they'll find a silver bullet to address the Myriad problems they face perhaps they're running out the clock for as long as possible before taking a global black eye on the scale that now that we think about it certainly fits the concept of doing something unprecedented and then getting delivered something unprecedented in return it's impossible to quantify just how much money Nom has already guzzled into the deep dark hole of losses that cannot be recouped but unless this whole thing is some massive fraud or a money-laundering scam which it doesn't overtly appear to be it's almost certainly consumed a hell of a lot of cash how Saudi Arabia comes back from such a devastating blunder how it manages to diversify its Holdings with the Neon dead in the water and how the people responsible managed to keep their heads from Rolling we'll just have to wait to find out until then neom will remain among the strangest Mega projects on the planet an uncanny amalgamation of grand ambition autocratic ruthlessness boundless human hope and the bitter realities that have long been a part of Saudi Arabia's place on the global stage if it ever does rise out of the Desert Sands to become even one half of what the kingdom has promised then it'll be every bit in you World Wonder but the idea that neon will ever truly get off the grounds appears to be less and less likely every single day [Music] [Music]

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 1,880,964

Keywords: neom construction, biggest megaprojects in the world, neom construction progress, neom update 2024, neom update, saudi arabia construction, the line update, saudi arabia the line, the line progress 2023, construction, saudi arabia the line 2023, largest construction projects, the line progress, the line, update 2024, the line 2023, saudi arabia, the line neom, saudi arabia megaprojects, megaprojects, neom

Id: e40Ju-zNyXk

Length: 25min 52sec (1552 seconds)

Published: Wed May 22 2024