NEOM The Line: What Happens to the 20,000 Workers and $500B in Contracts in 2026

When Saudi Arabia suspended construction on The Line in September 2025, it did not just stop a $500 billion megaproject. It left tens of thousands of workers, and a web of contracts worth hundreds of billions, in limbo. Who gets paid? Who gets sent home? Who is still on the NEOM site in 2026? This is the human and business story behind the pivot.

How Many Workers Were on The Line?

At peak, an estimated 20,000 or more workers were on The Line construction site — a mix of NEOM employees, direct contractors, and subcontractors from Saudi Arabia, South Asia, and elsewhere. Labour was housed in remote desert camps. When the Public Investment Fund suspended all construction on September 16, 2025, that workforce did not simply disappear. It had to be wound down, relocated, or terminated.

NEOM had already begun cutting headcount before the formal suspension. In April 2025, NEOM cut its active construction workforce by 35%. In July 2025, more than 1,000 NEOM employees were relocated from the project site to Riyadh to reduce costs and improve oversight. So by the time of the September suspension, a significant drawdown was already underway. The suspension made the remainder of the wind-down inevitable.

What Happens to the Workers?

NEOM employees: Many were relocated to Riyadh or reassigned within NEOM’s remaining projects (Sindalah, Trojena, Leyja, Epicon, and the new Oxagon data centre work). Not everyone was retained. Layoffs and “strategic redeployment” have been reported; exact numbers are not fully public. Saudi nationals and senior roles were more likely to be reabsorbed; expatriate and site labour bore more of the reduction.

Contract workers and subcontractors: This is where the pain is most acute. Large construction contractors (often multinationals) had signed contracts worth billions for specific phases of The Line. When the project was suspended:

There is no single “NEOM worker fund” or public programme that makes everyone whole. Outcomes depend on which company employed you, which contract you were on, and whether your employer was paid by NEOM or the prime contractor.

What Happens to the $500B in Contracts?

The Line was framed as a $500 billion project (the original announced budget was later revised internally to an estimated $8.8 trillion to complete the full vision — which is part of why it was suspended). The $500 billion figure represents the scale of commitments and contracts that were envisaged, not a single contract. In practice:

• Committed spend before suspension: Saudi Arabia had spent an estimated $50 billion on NEOM by the time of the September 2025 suspension (as confirmed by NEOM leadership at Davos in February 2025).
• Outstanding contracts: Many contracts were paused, renegotiated, or cancelled. Contractors with strong termination clauses and completed milestones had a better chance of being paid. Those mid-execution or with weaker terms faced delays, disputes, or write-downs.
• Who gets paid: Payment flows from PIF/NEOM to prime contractors, then down to subcontractors and suppliers. When the project stops, the chain freezes. Prime contractors with leverage and clear completed work have been able to settle; smaller subcontractors and labour have less leverage and fewer guarantees.

So: who gets paid and who does not is decided contract by contract. There is no blanket “everyone gets paid” or “everyone is cancelled.” The human cost falls hardest on workers and small subcontractors who had no say in the suspension and little recourse when the chain broke.

The Human Cost

Beyond the numbers:

• Displaced workers had to leave desert camps, often with no next job on the NEOM site. Repatriation and re-employment elsewhere are not automatic or fully funded by one central programme.
• Unpaid or delayed wages have been reported among some contractor and subcontractor labour. Legal and practical recourse for workers in Saudi Arabia and in home countries is limited and varies by employer and nationality.
• The Huwaitat tribe and others were displaced from land for The Line; that story is separate and still unresolved. The suspension does not reverse that displacement.

The Line was sold as the future of cities. For many of the people who built the first pieces of it, the future is uncertainty, dispute, and in some cases loss.

The Business Impact: Contractors and Suppliers

For construction and engineering firms, the suspension meant:

• Revenue shortfalls for those whose backlog was heavily NEOM-dependent.
• Reassignment of staff to other Gulf or global projects where possible.
• Legal and commercial teams focused on preserving payments for work done and negotiating exit terms.

For suppliers (materials, equipment, logistics), orders were cut or cancelled. Those with diversified customers fared better; those who had bet heavily on NEOM faced write-offs and liquidity pressure.

The $5 billion DataVolt deal for the Oxagon AI data centre (announced February 2026) creates new work — but it is a fraction of the labour and contract volume that The Line represented. Some of the same contractors may bid on data centre work; many workers and subcontractors from The Line will not be rehired for it. See Saudi Arabia Cancelled The Line and Pivoted to AI Data Centres for the technical and strategic side of the pivot.

Key Takeaways

• ~20,000 workers were on The Line at peak; 35% workforce cut in April 2025, 1,000+ employees relocated to Riyadh in July 2025, then full suspension September 16, 2025.
• No single answer to “who gets paid” — it depends on contract tier, termination clauses, and whether work was completed. Prime contractors with leverage have better outcomes; subcontractors and labour are more exposed.
• $50 billion had been spent on NEOM before suspension; $500B was the announced scale of the project. Outstanding contracts were paused, renegotiated, or cancelled — not uniformly paid out.
• Human cost: Repatriation, layoffs, delayed or disputed wages for some; displacement of the Huwaitat and others remains unresolved.
• Business impact: Revenue shortfalls for NEOM-dependent contractors; the Oxagon data centre pivot creates new work but on a much smaller scale than The Line.