Financing MBS's $500 Billion Desert Dream
Early construction for a Neom industrial zone. Photographer: Iman Al-Dabbagh/Businessweek
Saudi Arabia has announced for the first time how it plans to finance Neom — the Crown Prince’s flagship megaproject that is seen as a showpiece to transform the kingdom’s economy.
The first phase of the project, which runs until 2030, will cost 1.2 trillion riyals ($320 billion), with about half of that covered by the Public Investment Fund, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said. Officials will seek to raise another 600 billion riyals from other sovereign wealth funds in the region, private investors in Saudi Arabia and abroad, and the rest will be funded by an initial public offering of Neom itself on the Saudi stock market — an idea the prince first floated in 2017.