It's not just the Saudis doing crazy stuff like this. From the Wikipedia article On Neom, I found this:
> Belmont is a proposed planned city in the Phoenix metropolitan area of Arizona, United States. The development, a partnership between billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates and local real estate investors, will be a "smart city" designed around emerging technologies.[1] It will be located in the West Valley area, along Interstate 10 near Tonopah.
That's some of the driest, hottest land anywhere in the US and an extremely fragile ecosystem. The ongoing Colorado River crisis just makes this more of a head-scratcher. Maybe not at the same scale, but definitely a similar sense of leading with technology rather than the problem.
> Belmont is a proposed planned city in the Phoenix metropolitan area of Arizona, United States. The development, a partnership between billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates and local real estate investors, will be a "smart city" designed around emerging technologies.[1] It will be located in the West Valley area, along Interstate 10 near Tonopah.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belmont,_Arizona
That's some of the driest, hottest land anywhere in the US and an extremely fragile ecosystem. The ongoing Colorado River crisis just makes this more of a head-scratcher. Maybe not at the same scale, but definitely a similar sense of leading with technology rather than the problem.