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Podcast Personality
Paul Grant Truesdell | Founder & CEO
J.D., AIF, CLU, ChFC, RFC
The Truesdell Companies
The Truesdell Professional Building
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Rough Notes
NEOM: Saudi Arabia's Desert Dream (or Nightmare?)
Let me tell you about NEOM, the crown jewel of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 initiative. As someone who's been analyzing this project since its inception, I have to say it's absolutely fascinating—and by fascinating, I mean it's like watching someone try to build a space elevator using Legos and superglue.
The centerpiece of NEOM is "The Line," a concept so outlandish it makes Las Vegas look subtle. Picture this: a 106-mile-long city stretching across the desert, rising 500 meters tall (that's about the height of the Empire State Building), all enclosed in mirrored glass. It's as if someone took Manhattan, melted it down, and stretched it out like taffy. Who wouldn't want to live in a giant mirror-covered hallway where you can see your neighbors for miles?
This mega-city was designed to house 9 million people in what they call a "traditional-free" environment. No traditional buildings, no traditional streets, no traditional common sense! Just a massive straight line cutting through the desert. They promised flying taxis, robot maids, artificial weather, and even robot dinosaurs—because apparently regular cities with, you know, shapes other than straight lines are just too boring for Saudi Arabia's future.
Now let's talk money, because that's where things get really entertaining. The initial budget for The Line was a mere $200 billion—pocket change if you're sitting on the world's largest oil reserves. But in a plot twist that surprised absolutely no one except perhaps the Saudi finance ministry, that number has now ballooned to an estimated $8.8 TRILLION. That's trillion with a "T." To put that in perspective, that's about 25 times Saudi Arabia's entire annual budget! But hey, who's counting zeros when you've got oil money, right?
The best part is that after spending over $50 billion so far, they've had to scale back their ambitions just a teensy bit. Instead of building the full 106-mile line, they're now aiming to complete just 1.5 miles by 2030. That's like promising to build the entire Interstate Highway System but delivering only enough road to connect a Starbucks to a Walmart. Progress!
Even this dramatically reduced version would equal "three times all the office buildings in midtown Manhattan." It would require "a significant portion of the world's available steel and glass." I'm sure global supply chains won't mind setting aside most of their materials for one project in the desert. No problem at all! The global construction industry was just sitting around waiting for a challenge anyway.
So what have they actually accomplished so far with all this money and fanfare? They've managed to... dig a hole in the desert. But it's a very expensive hole, so there's that. They've also produced some truly spectacular CGI videos showing what NEOM might look like if physics and economics were optional disciplines.
The promotional materials for NEOM are something else. They show people zipping around in flying cars, swimming in crystal-clear waters that are somehow in the middle of the desert, and enjoying robot dinosaurs in futuristic amusement parks. There's even talk of an artificial moon and beaches with glow-in-the-dark sand. Because regular beaches are just SO 2010, and what the Middle East really needs is more artificial light pollution.
In financial terms, they're projecting a 9.3% return on investment. This impressive number was achieved through what business professionals like me call "creative accounting," or what normal people call "making stuff up." For example, they decided that people would happily pay $704 per night to go "glamping" at their not-yet-built desert ski resort. Seems reasonable! Who wouldn't want to pay luxury hotel prices to sleep in a tent next to fake snow in 120-degree heat?
The same financial wizardry determined that boutique hiking hotel rooms (whatever those are) would command $1,866 per night. Again, totally reasonable! I often pay two grand to stay in a hotel room specifically designed for people who plan to be... not in the hotel room. These projections definitely weren't created by consultants desperately trying to make the numbers work after being told that mentioning the actual costs was forbidden before key meetings.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reportedly gets very upset when people mention things like "budgets" or "physics" or "reality." According to leaked emails, there's even a rule that you should "not proactively mention cost at all" before key meetings. Now THAT'S how you run a multi-trillion dollar project! Just don't talk about the money! Problem solved.
Meanwhile, consulting giant McKinsey is earning about $130 million annually for their expert advice, which apparently includes such strategies as "just change the numbers in the spreadsheet until they look good" and "have you tried not telling the prince how much this actually costs?" I'm not saying they're enabling financial fantasy, but if McKinsey were a doctor, they'd be prescribing unicorn blood and phoenix tears.
Last October, NEOM hosted a grand opening f...