Saudi Arabia temporarily stopped construction of the world’s largest skyscraper

Mukaab is the latest mega-project under the Vision 2030 initiative of Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, to be scaled back or delayed when the country’s 925 billion USD Public Investment Fund (PIF) has to reduce its ambitions to balance costs. Saudi Arabia is shifting from spending heavily on visionary projects that dominate Vision 2030, such as the linear city The Line, to more urgent and potentially profitable projects.

Reuters Citing a close source, the projects being focused on include infrastructure for the World Expo 2030 and World Cup 2034 exhibitions, the $60 billion Diriyah cultural complex and the Qiddiya tourism super project. The strategic recalibration reflects growing financial pressures as oil prices remain far below the level needed to fund Saudi Arabia’s ambitions.

The Mukaab building is designed like a 400 x 400 x 400 m metal cube containing a dome with the world’s largest AI-equipped screen, allowing visitors to observe from a terraced structure more than 300 m high inside. The project is introduced as large enough to accommodate 20 Empire State Buildings, has an internal floor area of ​​about two million square meters and is the largest skyscraper in the world.

“When you enter Mukaab, you will enter another world,” Michael Dyke, CEO of New Murabba Development, said at a conference in Riyadh last month, admitting the difficulties of realizing Mukaab.

Mukaab’s design has received some mixed opinions on social networks because it looks similar to the Kaaba, a sacred structure for Muslims in Mecca. The future of the project is currently unclear because in addition to the excavation and pile driving stages, other construction activities have been suspended. Officials at PIF, the Saudi government and the Mukaab project did not respond to requests for comment.

Last October, Reuters reported that PIF is shifting its focus to logistics, mining, AI and other fields that promise better short-term profits due to increased pressure after a loss of 8 billion USD from investing in large projects by the end of 2024.