The Origins of NEOM: Vision 2030 and a Desert Dream
To understand NEOM, you must first understand Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia’s sweeping reform plan spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). The initiative aims to diversify the kingdom’s oil-dependent economy by investing in tourism, entertainment, tech, and infrastructure. At the heart of this transformation lies NEOM—a mega-city stretching over 10,000 square miles, encompassing deserts, mountains, and 468 kilometers of pristine Red Sea coastline.
Announced in 2017, NEOM was presented not just as a city, but as a civilizational leap. It would have flying taxis, robot maids, and cloud-seeding technology to create artificial rain. It promised zero-emission transportation and fully automated services powered by AI. But while the flashy renderings captivated the global media, many failed to grasp the profound implications of such an endeavor.
The Real Secret: A Testbed for the Future
NEOM is not just a city—it’s a testbed for the future of humanity. Saudi Arabia is quietly transforming the region into a living lab for technologies that could one day shape global civilization. The Line, one of NEOM’s flagship developments, is a 170-kilometer-long linear city with no roads, cars, or carbon emissions. It’s designed to house 9 million people in interconnected vertical modules, offering everything from schools and hospitals to sports arenas within a five-minute walk.
The idea is radical—and it’s deliberate. NEOM is an incubator of utopianism, a place where conventional rules are discarded to experiment with revolutionary ideas. In this sense, NEOM is less about real estate and more about reshaping how we live, move, work, and interact.
Data-Driven Urbanism
One of NEOM’s most closely guarded secrets is its plan to use ambient intelligence and massive data collection to optimize life. The city will rely on ubiquitous sensors, drones, and facial recognition to track citizens’ movements, behaviors, and health in real-time. While the public narrative is about convenience and safety, critics argue that NEOM could become a surveillance utopia—or dystopia—depending on who’s in charge.
But the bigger picture is even more compelling: Saudi Arabia wants to build the world’s most advanced AI-powered city, and in doing so, own the algorithms that run tomorrow’s societies.
NEOM as a Geopolitical Statement
Beyond technology, NEOM is a bold geopolitical move. For decades, Saudi Arabia has been perceived primarily as a petrostate, rich in oil but lacking in innovation. NEOM flips that narrative. It positions the kingdom as a tech-forward powerhouse, a magnet for global talent and investment.
More importantly, NEOM gives Saudi Arabia strategic leverage in the global tech arms race. As Western powers and China vie for dominance in AI, biotech, and smart infrastructure, Saudi Arabia is carving out a role as a neutral platform where East and West can collaborate—or compete—on futuristic projects.
The Red Sea: A Strategic Asset
The location of NEOM is no accident. The city sits along the Red Sea, a vital trade corridor linking Europe, Asia, and Africa. Control of this route offers not only economic benefits but military and diplomatic advantages. NEOM could serve as a gateway to three continents, bolstering Saudi Arabia’s influence in a post-oil world.
The Line, Trojena, Oxagon: Pieces of a Grand Puzzle
NEOM isn’t a single city—it’s a network of zones, each with its own purpose:
1. The Line
The most well-known segment, The Line, challenges the very idea of urban sprawl. Its zero-car, zero-emission design is meant to eliminate pollution, commuting, and the chaos of traditional cities. It’s a vertical city turned sideways.
2. Trojena
Trojena is NEOM’s mountain resort zone, promising year-round skiing in a desert climate, thanks to high-altitude snowfall and artificial snow machines. It’s also the host of the 2029 Asian Winter Games, which stunned the world by awarding a snow event to the Arabian desert.
3. Oxagon
Oxagon is the floating industrial city, envisioned as the world’s largest floating structure. It's designed to revolutionize logistics, manufacturing, and AI-driven industry. Oxagon may also become a hub for underwater research and marine biotech.
Together, these zones form a modular civilization, one that adapts to different environments and functions—yet remains interconnected through smart infrastructure and shared governance.
Human Cost: The Tabuk Tribes and Forced Relocations
No grand vision comes without controversy, and NEOM is no exception. One of the lesser-known but most disturbing secrets of NEOM is the forced displacement of the Huwaitat tribe, native to the Tabuk region where NEOM is being constructed.
Multiple human rights organizations have documented forced evictions, arrests, and even killings of tribal members who opposed the project. Activists say the development is trampling over indigenous land rights in pursuit of a high-tech utopia for the elite.
The death of activist Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti in 2020—who live-streamed his defiance before he was reportedly shot by security forces—cast a dark shadow over NEOM’s gleaming image.
NEOM and the War for Talent
To build this mega-city, Saudi Arabia is courting top-tier global talent, offering massive salaries, tax-free benefits, and luxury lifestyles to attract engineers, architects, scientists, and creatives from around the world.
But there’s a deeper play at work. By bringing in global experts and giving them a blank canvas, Saudi Arabia is building its own intellectual capital infrastructure. These imported minds are helping the kingdom leapfrog decades of development and institutional knowledge in a matter of years.
NEOM is, in effect, an academic-industrial complex, and its secrets lie in the minds of those being imported to design the future.
The Religious Question: NEOM as a Secular Zone?
Another secretive element of NEOM is its potential exemption from Saudi Arabia’s strict religious laws. According to insiders, NEOM may operate under a separate legal system, allowing for relaxed dress codes, alcohol consumption, and gender mixing—a stark departure from Wahhabi norms.
This autonomy could turn NEOM into a global lifestyle destination, akin to Dubai but with an even more futuristic edge. It also reflects a subtle yet radical shift in Saudi Arabia’s internal dynamics, where modernization increasingly outweighs religious orthodoxy—at least in designated zones.
Environmental Irony
While NEOM markets itself as a green utopia, critics argue that the massive construction effort is wreaking havoc on fragile desert ecosystems and marine life. From blasting mountain ranges to building artificial coastlines, the environmental toll is significant.
Moreover, creating artificial rain, air-conditioning giant glass structures in the desert, and flying in food for millions could produce enormous carbon emissions—ironically undermining NEOM’s climate narrative.
NEOM as a Brand: The Apple of Urbanism?
Perhaps the biggest secret behind NEOM is not what it is, but what it represents. NEOM is not just a city—it’s a brand, a symbol of post-oil reinvention. Like Apple revolutionized phones and Tesla transformed cars, Saudi Arabia wants NEOM to do the same for civilization itself.
From its logo to its marketing campaigns, NEOM is designed to evoke emotion, aspiration, and futurism. It’s storytelling at a national scale, blending mythology, capitalism, and ideology into a single, sleek product.
The Bigger Picture: Civilization Reboot?
In the end, NEOM is more than just a city in the desert. It’s a civilization reboot, a chance to start over from scratch and reimagine everything—from how cities are built to how societies are governed.
Yes, there are deep ethical, political, and environmental questions surrounding NEOM. But there’s also an undeniable allure. At a time when much of the world is drowning in crisis, pollution, congestion, and decay, NEOM offers a blank slate.
It may not be perfect, and it may never fully materialize as promised. But the secret of NEOM lies in its audacity—the sheer will to invent something radically new.
NEOM’s Secret Is Saudi Arabia’s Future
The secret of Saudi Arabia’s billion-dollar NEOM city isn’t buried in its architectural plans or budget spreadsheets. It’s in its ambition. It’s in the decision to use wealth not just to build, but to reinvent. NEOM is Saudi Arabia’s moonshot, a gamble on the future, and a statement to the world: “We are not just oil. We are the architects of tomorrow.”
Whether NEOM succeeds or fails, its legacy will likely shape how future civilizations think about urban life, technology, and the relationship between power and progress.
And perhaps that’s the real secret—NEOM is not about the future. It’s about owning the future before anyone else does.
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