Why Saudi Arabia Paused the Mukaab, and Kept Building Jeddah Tower

In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia dug the foundations for the largest building ever designed: the Mukaab, a 400-metre cube at the heart of the New Murabba district. In January 2026, Reuters reported that work beyond the excavation and piles had been suspended while its financing and feasibility were reassessed. More than 800 km away, Jeddah Tower, set to be the world's first one-kilometre building, kept climbing past 460 metres. Same country, same year, same promise to build the biggest thing on Earth. So why did one stop in the ground while the other kept rising? This video follows the money: who owns each project, who pays for it, and what the kingdom chose to put first as the 2030 Expo and the 2034 World Cup moved to the front of the queue. CHAPTERS 0:00 A hole for the biggest building ever designed 0:58 The promise 1:15 Chapter 1: The bet 1:59 Chapter 2: The promise 3:09 Chapter 3: The queue 4:41 Why is the other one still going up? 5:01 Chapter 4: Follow the money 7:41 The answer 8:30 Chapter 5: What comes next KEY FIGURES Mukaab: 400 × 400 × 400 m, about 2 million m² of floor space (developer, 2023) · New Murabba district estimated at about $50 billion (Knight Frank, via Reuters) · contracts commissioned by January 2026: about $100 million (Reuters) Jeddah Tower: 116 floors and about 466 m in September 2026, target late 2028 (Gulf Business, October 2026) · completion contract SAR 7.2 billion, about $1.9 billion, funded by "internal funding, including banking facilities" (Kingdom Holding filing, October 2, 2024) Ownership: New Murabba Development Co. is wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund · PIF owns 16.87% of Kingdom Holding (2022) · Saudi Binladin Group is 86% owned by the Ministry of Finance (December 2025) Saudi budget, Q1 2026: deficit of SAR 125.7 billion, about $33.5 billion (Ministry of Finance) SAR converted at the fixed rate of 3.75 per dollar. Distance Riyadh to Jeddah: straight line. SOURCES Reuters (January 27, 2026; via The Business Standard and others); Argaam (February 9, 2026); AGBI; Arab News / MEED (January 28, 2026); Construction Week Saudi (2026); Semafor (October 14, 2026); Gulf Business (October 2026); Saudi Ministry of Finance quarterly budget report (Q1 2026); Kingdom Holding filings on the Saudi Exchange (Tadawul); Dezeen (October 2024); Saudipedia; Wikipedia (Mukaab, New Murabba; cross-checked) No AI-generated images or video. 3D scenes, maps and animated diagrams are schematic illustrations made for this video. Satellite imagery: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2023–2026. Globe: NASA Blue Marble. Stock footage: Pexels. Music: original score made for AEDIFICATUM. PHOTO CREDITS Riyadh skyline with KAFD and Kingdom Tower — B.alotaby, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Mohammed bin Salman, official portrait — Saudi Press Agency, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Khalid A. Al Falih, 2012 — World Economic Forum, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Riyadh Metro, 2024 — Saudi Press Agency (SPA), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Jeddah Tower, August 2019 — S.Nitzold, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Jeddah Tower 2025–2026 and Mukaab illustration — Omarnizar05 and Salman Al-Mazini, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons #Mukaab #JeddahTower #SaudiArabia