NEOM's Line pivots from megacity to AI server corridor as MENA data-centre race heats up

## NEOM's Line pivots from megacity to AI server corridor as MENA data-centre race heats up Saudi Arabia's The Line, once marketed as a 170-kilometre linear megacity, is being reimagined as a 170-kilometre AI server corridor cooled by Red Sea seawater, according to multiple briefings at this week's MENA smart-cities conference. The pivot confirms what Gulf operators have whispered for months, that the region's most striking megaproject will earn its keep as AI infrastructure, not residential property. Around it, **Masdar City 2.0** in Abu Dhabi, **Lusail** in Qatar, and **Muscat's Sultan Haitham City** are pitching their own AI-first reboots, turning the MENA data-centre race into the defining smart-cities story of 2026. ## The Line, reimagined The original pitch for The Line was an end-to-end city for nine million residents within a mirrored glass corridor. That design hit the wall in 2025 on costs, physics, and workforce pressures, with construction suspended on 16 September 2025. The new plan keeps the 170-kilometre footprint but turns it into what insiders are calling the world's longest AI server corridor. Seawater cooling from the Red Sea, renewable power blocks from Neom's solar and wind build-out, and the fact that the corridor already has cleared land make it a uniquely scalable template for hyperscale AI compute, at least on paper. The ambition is to give Saudi Arabia a sovereign compute anchor that can host **HumAIn**, **ALLaM**, **Aramco Digital**, and a rotating roster of foreign tenants. ### By The Numbers - 170 km length preserved from the original The Line plan, now earmarked for AI infrastructure. - More than $50bn already committed to NEOM before the 2025 pause, much of it reusable for compute. - 35% workforce reduction executed across NEOM projects during the 2025 reset. - 99.8% renewable uptime target for Masdar City 2.0 under AI-optimised microgrids. - 42% congestion reduction reported at Lusail through AI traffic orchestration. ## The rival blueprints in Abu Dhabi, Doha, and Muscat **Masdar City 2.0** has doubled down on AI-optimised energy. Predictive algorithms now pair with adaptive microgrids that self-heal during peak loads, and demos at this week's sessions targeted 99.8% renewable uptime. In Doha, **Lusail** showed AI traffic orchestration that claims to cut congestion 42% via real-time vehicle-to-infrastructure signalling, with holographic displays guiding connected shuttles along its waterfront. **Riyadh Downtown** is leaning on a neural network-managed grid that balances 2.5 gigawatts of solar input using millisecond-scale edge AI routing. **Muscat's Sultan Haitham City** leans into digital twins that simulate urban growth to cut water waste by up to 30%, blending Omani heritage with drone-monitored green corridors. > "NEOM is positioning itself as the central nervous system of the global AI economy." > — NEOM leadership briefing, MENA smart-cities conference, April 2026 > "The Line smart city is reportedly now being rethought as an AI data centre, which the country expects to bring a greater short-term return." > — Reuters and local industry commentary, April 2026 ## The physics the pivot must respect Turning The Line into an AI server corridor does not remove the physics challenges that slowed the residential plan. Dust control, heat, water intake impacts on Red Sea ecology, grid balancing, and electricity pricing all need answers. The seawater cooling pitch is well grounded on paper, but sustained AI workloads at 5 to 10 gigawatts would have real marine ecosystem implications without careful thermal diffusion. Workforce construction is easier than before, because 35% fewer residential amenities are needed, but the precision engineering of large-scale thermal and compute infrastructure is just as demanding. The test for Saudi Arabia is whether it can execute something unprecedented while rival hubs lock in more predictable builds.

Project	Country	AI angle	Big risk
The Line, NEOM	Saudi Arabia	170 km AI server corridor, seawater cooling	Ecology, execution at scale
Masdar City 2.0	UAE	AI microgrid, 99.8% renewable uptime	Cost of storage at scale
Lusail	Qatar	AI traffic and V2I orchestration	Vendor lock-in, data privacy
Riyadh Downtown	Saudi Arabia	Neural-network grid, edge AI rerouting	Cyber-resilience, transparency
Sultan Haitham City	Oman	Digital twin for water and heritage	Execution discipline, funding

## What this means for the wider region The MENA smart-cities story used to be a set of postcards. It is now a set of engineering problems tied directly to AI infrastructure. For context, see our reporting on the [Dubai AI Smart City Summit and the NEOM plus Masdar ambition](/smart-cities/dubai-ai-smart-city-summit-neom-masdar-2026), along with the [smart waste and water AI approach to the Gulf's resource crisis](/smart-cities/smart-waste-water-ai-gulf-resource-crisis). Egypt's Benban Solar Park is running AI predictive maintenance for panel efficiency, Baghdad is pushing AI-driven flood defences along the Tigris, and Dubai RTA's autonomous pod fleet logged more than 500,000 zero-emission kilometres. Together, these form a regional platform that rival Asian hubs will find hard to match on cost or ambition. 1. AI is now the primary design constraint for MENA smart-city masterplans. 2. Compute siting is moving from city edges into city cores, with cooling and power as the hardest problems. 3. Traffic and energy AI are graduating from pilots to backbone systems. 4. Digital twins are emerging as the standard contract between developers and regulators. 5. Sustainability metrics, not ribbon cuttings, will determine which megaprojects survive the decade. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is The Line being cancelled? No. The Line is being repositioned. The 170-kilometre footprint remains in play, but the near-term use case is AI compute infrastructure with seawater cooling, rather than residential housing for nine million people. Saudi leadership treats this as a pivot toward faster, more measurable economic returns. ### Which MENA smart city is furthest along on AI today? **Masdar City 2.0** in Abu Dhabi is arguably the most operationally advanced, thanks to its AI-optimised microgrid and high renewable uptime. **Lusail** in Qatar leads on AI-driven traffic orchestration. **Riyadh Downtown** is ahead on neural-network grid management. Together they form a regional stack that is the first real competitor to Asian smart-city hubs. ### How does seawater cooling actually work at this scale? Deep seawater is pumped through heat exchangers that draw heat from data-centre cooling loops, then returned at controlled temperatures. At Red Sea scale, the approach depends on careful thermal diffusion, ecological impact modelling, and redundant intake designs. It is well understood in principle, but rarely executed at the sustained gigawatt loads AI training demands. ### Who will tenant The Line's AI corridor? Expected tenants include **HumAIn**, **ALLaM** workloads from SDAIA, **Aramco Digital**, and rotating international hyperscalers that need sovereign-grade capacity. The commercial model will likely mirror long-term power purchase agreements, with tenants buying both compute and power from the corridor at fixed rates. Which MENA smart-city bet will age best by 2030, and which one is quietly at risk? Drop your take in the comments below.