According to new reporting from the Financial Times, the saga may yet have a twist in store for us. The Saudi government is now considering drastically downsizing the linear city-skyscraper so it can instead turn NEOM into a hub for — we swear we are not kidding — data centers.

The pivot was proposed as Riyadh wraps up its year-long review of NEOM’s progress, and continues a pattern of belt-tightening across the government’s myriad, exorbitantly expensive investments — which include everything from buying up entire sports leagues and teams to competitive video games. Ostensibly to diversify the country’s oil-dependent economy, they’re now becoming more burdensome as oil prices have been in steady decline, leaving the kingdom’s purportedly trillion dollar Public Investment Fund low on cash.

The extent that THE LINE will be downscaled remains unclear, but it apparently isn’t going away completely. The FT’s source said that architects were already working on redesigning the megastructure into a more “modest” — and radically changed — project. 

As it stands, its fate hinges on the ongoing review, which is slated to finish by or near the end of the first quarter of this year.

Read the full story at Futurism