science

Neom

Neom is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Neom rather than just read about it. In short: Neom (Arabic: نيوم, romanized: Niyōm, Hejazi Arabic pronunciation: [nɪˈjo̞ːm], stylized as NEOM) is a megaproject in Tabuk Province in Saudi Arabia. It was launched in 2017 by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who was the driving force and hands-on chair behind the project.

Key takeaways

Neom belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Neom to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Neom from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Neom (Arabic: نيوم, romanized: Niyōm, Hejazi Arabic pronunciation: [nɪˈjo̞ːm], stylized as NEOM) is a megaproject in Tabuk Province in Saudi Arabia. It was launched in 2017 by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who was the driving force and hands-on chair behind the project. The project, which was heavily criticized for its unrealistic plans, human rights violations and environmental destruction, has been substantially scaled back after years of delays and cost overruns. The site is at the northern tip of the Red Sea, east of Egypt across the Gulf of Aqaba and south of Jordan. The total planned area of Neom is 26,500 km2 (10,200 sq mi). Multiple regions are planned, including a floating industrial complex, global trade hub, tourist resorts, and a linear city powered by renewable energy sources. Thousands of people have been forcibly moved to make way for the project and villages have been razed. Much of the city was planned to be completed by 2030, for it is one of the focal points of Saudi Vision 2030. Experts expressed skepticism about the ambitions of the megaproject. Initially estimated to cost $1.6 trillion, the project's estimated costs were by 2025 in excess of $8.8 trillion (more than 25 times the annual Saudi budget). By July 2022 only two buildings had been constructed, and most of the project area remained bare desert. In 2024, Neom was reported to have been substantially scaled back from its original plan. An internal audit of the megaproject found extensive problems, including "evidence of deliberate manipulation" by the managers of the project. By 2025, new contracts for Neom dried up and there was no mention of Neom in Saudi Arabia's pre-budget statement for 2026. In March 2026, large contracts for tunneling work and the Trojena ski resort were cancelled. Neom's construction has been criticised for environmental and human rights violations, with expatriate employees describing abusive working conditions and members of the local Howeitat tribe protesting against their forced expulsion. Around 20,000 people are expected to be forcibly relocated. Members of the Howeitat tribe have been killed resisting evictions, including Abdul Rahim al-Huwaiti who was killed by Saudi security forces under disputed circumstances. Three other members of the tribe were also sentenced to death for resisting evictions.

Etymology Neom means "new future". The first three letters are the Greek prefix neo meaning "new", and the fourth letter, M, represents the Arabic word for "future" (Arabic: مستقبل, romanized: Mustaqbal, Hejazi Arabic pronunciation: [mʊsˈtaɡbal]).

History Salman announced plans for the planned city at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh on October 24, 2017. He said that it would operate independently from the "existing governmental framework" with its own tax and labour laws and an "autonomous judicial system". Egypt announced in 2018 that it would contribute some land to the Neom project. The initiative to create the region of Neom emerged from Saudi Vision 2030, a plan to reduce Saudi Arabia's dependence on oil, diversify its economy, and develop public-service sectors. According to project announcements, robots are expected to perform functions such as security, logistics, home delivery, and caregiving and for the region to be powered solely by renewable energy sources, including wind and solar power. On January 29, 2019, the Saudi government announced that it had established a closed joint-stock company named Neom. The company, which is solely dedicated to developing the economic zone of Neom, is wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund, the Saudi government’s sovereign wealth fund. Klaus Kleinfeld was announced by Mohammed bin Salman as the inaugural director for the Neom project upon its launch. Kleinfeld was then announced as an advisor to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Nadhmi Al-Nasr became the CEO of Neom. In July 2020, Neom, the American company Air Products & Chemicals, Inc., and Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power announced plans to build what was describes as the world's largest green hydrogen plant in Saudi Arabia, at Neom. Neom is an equal partner in the US$5 billion project. In 2023, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman respond to critics of the project, stating: "They say in a lot of projects that happen in Saudi Arabia, it can't be done, this is very ambitious. They can keep saying that. And we can keep proving them wrong." The Wall Street Journal reported that an internal audit of the gigaproject found "evidence of deliberate manipulation" of finances by "certain members of management." A Neom spokeswoman stated the WSJ was "incorrectly interpreting" and misrepresenting the figures. By 2025, few new contracts for Neom were reported, and the project was not mentioned in Saudi Arabia's pre-budget statement for 2026. In October 2024, an opening party for Sindalah, a luxury island destination, was held, the first in the Neom region. Following the event, Sindalah was reported by multiple outlets to have received only limited or invitation-only access and remained closed to the general public as of 2025, with its full operational status not confirmed in independent reporting. A few weeks after the opening party, Neom CEO Al-Nasr was succeeded by Aiman Al-Mudaifer, head of the Local Real Estate division at Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. According to former Neom employees, the working culture resembled Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale "The Emperor’s New Clothes", with concerns that dissent was ignored or punished. According to the Financial Times, in 2025, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as chair of the project, proposed ambitious ideas that some staff expressed concerns about in terms of feasibility.

Planned regions

Full list

The Line

Neom Bay

The development work of the project's first phase, Neom Bay, was planned to start in the first quarter of 2019 with completion by 2020. The developments were to include constructing the airport at Sharma, which would operate regular commercial flights between Riyadh and Neom. The plan of Neom Bay's developments also involves building the first residential area in Neom as part of Phase 1.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Neom

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Neom claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Neom before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Neom ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Neom

In research: Neom appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Neom in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Neom is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2017 establishments in Saudi Arabia, 2029 Asian Winter Games, Economy of Saudi Arabia, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Neom outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Neom in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Neom means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Neom out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Neom in simple terms?

Why does Neom matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Neom?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Neom.