Work on The Line in Saudi Arabia has been put on pause until at least 2030, per reporting in Semafor. Construction will also temporarily stop on Trojena, a mountain resort city.

NEOM, the company chaired by Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman backing the construction project, will shift its efforts to Oxagon, a port city south of The Line on the Red Sea, according to sources close to the plan. 

The pivot is a directive of the new NEOM CEO Aiman al-Mudaifer. Reports indicated that physical infrastructure that’s been already laid could be repurposed for data center usage. The reinvestment strategy may be connected to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz because Oxagon could play an essential role in seeding new trade routes. NEOM has pledged $3 billion to Oxagon. A construction timeline for the city’s completion hasn’t been announced. 

Oxagon, as the name suggests, is a 40-acre floating city with eight sides. The port and logistics hub has been billed as “the world’s largest floating structure.” Bjarke Ingels Group was named the masterplanner of Oxagon in 2023. AN emailed BIG for comment in regard to the status of the project, and its involvement in it.

Andre Kikoski Architect, a New York firm, completed a greenhouse at Oxagon last year for Topian, NEOM’s food company.

Plans for The Line have been dramatically scaled back since it was announced in 2021 by the Saudi Crown Prince, culminating in this most recent work stoppage. NEOM has long been marred in controversy. In 2024, it was reported that more than 21,000 Indian, Bangladeshi, and Nepalese workers have died in Saudi Arabia since 2017 working on various aspects of Saudi Vision 2030.

NEOM at first envisioned 1.5 million residents living in a city 105 miles long. In 2024 NEOM said that only 300,000 residents would live in a 1.5 mile long city. That same year,

Today, NEOM projects to have up to 100,000 residents living at The Line by 2030.