Saudi Arabia scales back giga-projects to focus on World Cup

• Neom and The Line placed lower on list
• Al Falih says ‘priorities have arisen’
• New spending strategy imminent

Neom and its centrepiece “The Line” is officially being pushed down the pecking order as Saudi Arabia switches focus to the 2034 World Cup and the 2030 Expo due to tighter budgets, Khalid Al Falih, the kingdom’s investment minister, said.

Speaking at the PIF Private Sector Forum in Riyadh on Monday, Al Falih said that “priorities have arisen to which we cannot say no”, referring to the Riyadh Expo and the Fifa World Cup.

There are stadiums that still need to be completed to host the football competition, Al Falih said. Saudi Arabia has said the games will take place in 15 stadiums, 11 of which are yet to be built, including Neom Stadium, which is planned to be built in The Line.

“These are the priorities,” he said, “and the feasibility of certain projects, such as The Line, may decline.”

The 100-mile long city was unveiled as the cornerstone of the Neom giga-project in 2021, but its future has been in question following reports of widespread cutbacks across gigaprojects.

Speaking on a panel with fellow cabinet ministers, Al Falih said: “Some projects may be postponed and others accelerated. And if they are less viable, the projects’ scope may be reduced.”

The $1 trillion Public Investment Fund, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund fuelling the Vision 2030 development programme, has slashed budgets across its portfolio companies since 2024 as the price of oil fell from an average of $81 a barrel to below $64.

The fund is expected to announce elements of its revised long-term investment strategy that will guide it through to the 2030 deadline.

Speaking to Bloomberg on Sunday, finance minister Mohammed Al Jadaan said that Saudi Arabia plans to release a new economic diversification agenda to outline its spending priorities over the next five years.

“We have shifted certain projects that we’ve scaled down, certain projects we’ve expanded, and certain projects we’ve put on hold,” he said.

• PIF prepares for ‘leaner, meaner, but more profitable’ future
• Investors welcome Saudi giga-project cuts
• Saudi Arabia postpones 2029 Asian Winter Games in Trojena

In September PIF’s governor Yasir Al Rummayyan teased the imminent release of a strategy that would plot a path to 2040 and help make the fund into a “slimmer, leaner, meaner, but more productive and profitable organisation”.

Saudi Arabia is no longer holding the 2029 Asian Winter Games that were due to be in the futuristic ski resort of Trojena, which is still under construction.

AGBI reported last year that PIF ordered cuts of between 20 percent and 60 percent across its portfolio companies at a board meeting in December 2024.