Al-Ula has recorded the highest improvement in the IMD Smart City Index 2026, advancing from 112th place in 2025 to 85th this year, placing it among the most improved cities globally.
“The top three cities in this year’s ranking are Zurich (first), Oslo (second), and Geneva (third). Al-Ula jumped 27 places while Washington DC rose by 23. Big drops were seen from Bordeaux (down 19), Lyon (also down 19), and Ottawa (down 18, together with Shenzhen),” said the IMD Smart City Index official portal.
Weiterlesen: SA: Al-Ula jumps 27 places in Smart City Index 2026, ranks 85th globally
Saudi Arabia shines in smart city advancements, with eight cities achieving impressive global rankings in the 2026 IMD Index.
Saudi Arabia has achieved impressive milestones in the 2026 IMD Smart City Index, with eight cities making their mark and showcasing significant advancements in smart urban development.
Weiterlesen: Saudi Arabia Shines in IMD Smart City Index 2026
The desert around Tabuk remains silent around morning. But the silence isn’t peaceful—it’s heavy, interrupted only by the distant whirl of machinery. This is where Saudi Arabia’s most ambitious urban experiment, The Line, is happening.
Originally envisioned as a 170-kilometer stretch of high-density futuristic living, The Line was touted as a clean, car-free utopia with a five-minute walk to everything. But lately, that promise has starting to feel like a mirage. Complaints are rising—from workers, residents, and planners. Not all of them loud, but most of them urgent.
Eight Saudi cities made a notable showing in the IMD Smart City Index 2026, published by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), the Saudi Press Agency said on Friday.
The result reflects faster development and improving quality of life across the Kingdom’s cities, in line with Saudi Vision 2030, the Saudi Press Agency said on Friday.
Weiterlesen: Eight Saudi Cities in IMD Smart City Index 2026; Riyadh Advances to 24th Globally
Originally envisioned as an extravagant 105-mile-long smart city, the Line is reportedly shrinking into a pragmatic data center hub.
Saudi Arabia is officially gutting Neom and turning the Line into a server farm. After a year-long review triggered by financial reality, the Financial Times reports that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s flagship project is being “significantly downscaled.” The futuristic linear city known as the Line, originally designed to stretch 150 miles across the desert, is scrapping its sci-fi ambitions to become a far smaller project focused on industrial sectors, says the Financial Times. It’s a rumor that the Saudis originally dismissed when The Guardian first reported on it in 2024. The redesign confirms what skeptics have long suspected: The laws of physics and economics have finally breached the walls of the kingdom’s futuristic Saudi Vision 2030, a country reconversion program aimed at lowering Saudi Arabia’s dependency on oil and transforming the country into a more modern society.
Weiterlesen: Saudi Arabia’s the Line is collapsing into a hyphen