NEOM in 2026: What Is Being Built, and What Has Changed

Updated 2 October 2026

NEOM is a development area of 26,500 km² in the north-west of Saudi Arabia. According to a Semafor report of 22 May 2026, further work on The Line is halted until at least after 2030, and NEOM plans to spend about 3 billion US dollars on further developing Oxagon. The 2029 Asian Winter Games, once due to be held at Trojena, NEOM’s mountain region, will take place in Almaty, Kazakhstan, under a host city contract the Olympic Council of Asia signed on 5 February 2026.

NEOM at a glance

The table sets each part of NEOM against what was announced or planned and against its documented status, with the source in brackets.

What is NEOM, and how large is it?

NEOM is not a single city but a development area of five regions and a nature reserve. Its website gives a land footprint of 26,500 km², and its About page lists the regions as Oxagon, The Line, Trojena, the NEOM Nature Reserve, the Islands of NEOM and Magna. On the Islands of NEOM page, the count is 41 islands, accessible from a coastline of 468 km.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced NEOM in 2017, and in January 2019 Saudi Arabia created NEOM Company, a closed joint-stock company to be fully owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), to develop what Arab News then described as a planned 500 billion US dollar mega-city.

Is The Line still being built?

Further work on The Line is halted until at least after 2030, Semafor reported on 22 May 2026, and its twin mirrored skyscrapers are being significantly redesigned. The Line had once been projected to cost more than 1 trillion US dollars.

The design NEOM announced in July 2022 was for a city 170 km long and 200 metres wide, in which nine million people were to live.

In October 2026, NEOM’s own page on The Line said that the project was “advancing through a phased, demand-led approach” and gave no length, height or number of residents.

What happened to Trojena and the 2029 Asian Winter Games?

The 2029 Asian Winter Games will be held in Almaty, Kazakhstan, not at Trojena. On 5 February 2026, in Milan, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) signed the host city contract for the 10th Asian Winter Games, to be staged in Almaty in 2029.

Before that, in January 2026, the OCA and the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee had agreed to postpone Saudi Arabia’s 2029 edition to a later date, to be announced in due course. Under the same framework, Saudi Arabia is to host a series of standalone winter sports events in the coming years.

According to Semafor, Trojena, which had been due to host those Games, will receive no new investment until after 2030. NEOM’s Trojena page places the region at altitudes of up to 2,600 m and does not mention the Asian Winter Games.

Has Sindalah opened, and what is planned for Oxagon?

In October 2024, NEOM said that Sindalah had welcomed its first guests and was set to receive up to 2,400 guests a day by 2028. Semafor reported in May 2026 that NEOM had postponed plans to develop tourism destinations along the Red Sea coast until after 2030.

For Oxagon, one of the five regions on NEOM’s list, Semafor reported on 22 May 2026 that NEOM plans to spend about 3 billion US dollars on further development.

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First published on 6 March 2024.