Saudi Arabia is desperately trying to woo bankers to pay for its futuristic desert city

The planned design for The Line in Neom. Neom

• Neom is hosting hundreds of prospective investors for on-the-ground tours, Bloomberg reports.
• Neom developers also recently met with financiers in China.
• Saudi Arabia’s government has reportedly been worried about rising costs for the futuristic city.

For the first time, Saudi Arabia is inviting hundreds of private bankers this week to visit Neom, its futuristic — and cash-strapped — city in the desert, Bloomberg reported.

Neom CEO Nadhmi Al-Nasr will now show visitors the construction work on “The Line,” the planned city between two mirrored skyscrapers.

The tours will mark the first time a large group of financiers will be able to see anything of the futuristic city with their own eyes, as opposed to virtual renderings.

The potential investors will also tour vacation spot Sindalah and industrial hub Oxagon before leaving on jets, Bloomberg reported.

Neom is a $500 billion project that’s been in the works since 2017. The Saudis plan to build the city in a straight line and run it using renewable energy.

But the high-tech city has gotten off to a rough start, despite being a key part of the Saudi Vision 2030 plan to expand the country’s economy beyond oil.

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund hasn’t approved Neom’s budget for 2024 yet. The ballooning cost of the project has raised eyebrows in the Saudi government, Bloomberg reported

Neom recently scaled back estimates for occupancy at The Line — projecting 300,000 residents by 2030 as opposed to previous estimates of 1.5 million, according to Bloomberg.

Bloomberg previously reported that Neom is set to issue bonds for the first time that could raise up to $1.3 billion. According to AFP, developers also recently courted investors in China — though no deals have been announced — after having previously taken its road show to Korea, Japan, Singapore, the US, France, Germany, and the UK.

Neom did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.

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