"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" -- Neom was just the beginning for MBS

“Let’s talk about something other than women driving. The NEOM project, the futuristic city that he (the crown prince) plans to invest half a trillion dollars in. What if it goes wrong? It could bankrupt the country.”

 Jamal Khashoggi, June 2017
 

A gateway to another world: #TheMukaab will be the world’s first immersive, experiential destination. Large enough to hold 20 Empire State Buildings, the global icon will feature innovative technologies to transport you to new worlds.#NewMurabbahttps://t.co/5R4DqQdPyS pic.twitter.com/vr9M8cTI1I

— Public Investment Fund (@PIF_en) February 16, 2023

As mentioned before, we live in a time of mad kings, megalomaniacal sociopaths granted dangerous power through wealth and/or political position, prone to wild schemes of empire and grandeur. Even in this crowded field, the ruler of Saudi Arabia manages to stand out, particularly with his willingness to burn through even the impressive coffers of his country building futuristic boondoggles. 

He's like a self-funding Elon Musk.

Space pods and flying dragons: How Saudi Arabia wants to transform its capital
Nadeen Ebrahim and Dalya Al Masri

At the heart of the project is the "Mukaab," a 400-meter (1,312-foot) high, 400-meter wide and 400-meter-long cube that is big enough to fit 20 Empire State buildings. It offers "an immersive experience" with landscapes changing from outer space to green vistas, according to Public Investment Fund (PIF), the MBS-led $620-billion sovereign wealth fund. The project is due to be completed in 2030.

...

"Back in the day, you would have negative discussions about Saudi Arabia affiliated to human rights abuses," said Andreas Krieg, research fellow at the King's College London Institute of Middle Eastern Studies. "But now they're trying to push new narratives of being a country of development and one that can build futuristic cities."

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But some have questioned whether the project will even come to fruition. Saudi Arabia has announced similar mega projects in the past, work on which has been slow.

In 2021, MBS announced his $500 billion futuristic Neom city in the northwest of the country, with promises of robot maids, flying taxis, and a giant artificial moon. And last year, he unveiled a giant linear city, the Line, which aimed to stretch over 106 miles and house 9 million people.

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"The more absurd and futuristic these projects get, the more I can't help but imagine how much more dystopian everything surrounding them will be," wrote Dana Ahmed, a Gulf researcher at Amnesty International, on Twitter.

Saudi officials have insisted that work on the projects is going ahead as planned.