Saudi Arabia’s Dystopian Futuristic City Project Is Crashing and Burning

Gizmodo ^ | November 10, 2025 | Lucas Ropek

[USA-FRANCE]

“AI for Saudis?
Very good. Musk is even planning a massive AI data center there.”

>>>>>>>>>

Very good, you say? Then why stop there? Maybe we should hand our AI tech to Venezuela and North Korea too, just to complete the set.
We’re about to turbocharge the Middle East’s second most Islamist state after Iran. We already built China’s economy from scratch, and now we’re scrambling with tariffs because they’re outpacing us. They corner us with rare earths, and we cave every time.

And now we’re repeating the same mistake. We’re helping Saudi Arabia rise the same way we helped China, right up until the moment they turn against us. Sure, we’ll get some short-term returns, but long-term we’ll be on the losing end again.

Trump once said China was ‘raping America.’ At this rate, Saudi Arabia will have the tools to do the same.

There is one silver lining, though: this pro-Saudi strategy is crushing Russia’s oil revenues. Prices dropped to around $36 a barrel, and it’s tearing through Russia’s economy like a nuke! That level is completely unsustainable for Moscow.

I guess that Trump really wants Russia on its knees. I can agree with that logic.

[butlerweave]

In a muslim country everything hits a dead end or just that Brick wall ,LOL

[The Great RJ]

Just who did the Saudis expect would live there? Aside from their own wealthy playboys, most Saudis couldn’t afford to live there. It would also be hard to attract foreign residents to a country that bans alcohol and makes women completely cover themselves even when swimming.

[SmokingJoe]

“Maybe we should hand our AI tech to Venezuela and North Korea too, just to complete the set”

Get Venezuela to invest a cool Trillion dollars in America like Saudi Arabia has, then we'll talk.
Oh wait, Venezuela is totally broke and is busy exporting vast amounts of illegal drugs to America to kill America's children, with full support from Maduro.
Last I looked Venezuelans were busy eating from trash bags...that is until Biden started importing them to America.

[SmokingJoe]

” We're helping Saudi Arabia rise the same way we helped China,”

Actually, Saudi Arabia has been a stronger and more consistent ally to America than most EU members.
The EU has essentially bled America dry on trade for 80 years, even as America spent hundreds of billions of dollars to defend the EU since WW II in NATO>
China?
They are extremely hard working and innovative, that's how they managed to come round to making more cars than the US and EU combined from making very few cars to start off with.
And currently dominate smart phones, HDTVs, and most electronics,
Not to mention having rovers on the moon and Mars and having their own space station,
Europe is yet to land a rover on Mars.

[marktwain]

The California “high speed rail project” have too much money?

---

Other people’s money.

[SmokingJoe]

As usual.

[bobbo666]

Sounds like CaCaLand’s bullet train — which was designed only to skim the $$ and enrich politicos.

[Dr. Sivana]

The chandelier, the architect explained, could “start to move like a pendulum”, then “pick up speed”, and eventually “break off”, crashing into the marina below.

Or they could hire Chinese contractors thus ensuring the chandelier would immediately "break off."

Either way, it would make a fantastic setting for the next Godzilla movie.

[JimRed]

And yet they are going to “invest” $600M-$1B in the good ol’ USA. Strange!

[USA-FRANCE]

You are shockingly wrong.
Defending the communists and the islamists at every turn and at “what ever the cost” doesn’t honor you.

America built China’s economy. Period.
Just like Europeans built America truly from scratch.
Without European hard working pioneers, and without FRANCE’s massive effort to save America’s independence, there would be no America as we know it today.

America is Europe’s child.
Historically speaking, Europe’s investments in America is so massive, it’s beyond biblical!

[SmokingJoe]

“America built China's economy. Period.”

Nope.
The Chinese built the mighty Chinese economy.
Through sheer hard work and innovation.

“Just like Europeans built America truly from scratch.”

Nope.
Americans built America from scratch.
That's why America is ahead of Europe in Space, technology, AI etc.
Europe is faded and jaded.
Can't see any European company even on the same planet as Nvidia for example.

“Without European hard working pioneers, and without FRANCE’s massive effort to save America's independence, there would be no America as we know it today.”

Same France that was saved from the Nazis by US troops and money in WW II?

“America is Europe's child.
Historically speaking, Europe's investments in America is so massive, it's beyond biblical!”

Now why don't we talk about the hundreds of Billions probably Trillions of dollars (in today's money) that America has poured into Euro after WW II, starting with Marhsal Aid and then the hundreds of billions of US dollars spent by America in NATO to defend the hapless Europeans since WWII?

[SmokingJoe]

As of November 20, 2025, there are 0 trillion-dollar companies in Europe (meaning publicly traded companies headquartered in Europe with a market capitalization of $1 trillion USD or more).

In America:
As of November 20, 2025, there are 10 publicly traded companies headquartered in the United States with a market capitalization of $1 trillion USD or more (commonly referred to as the “trillion-dollar club”). All current global trillion-dollar companies are either U.S.-based or (in rare cases like TSMC or Saudi Aramco) non-U.S., but no non-U.S. company outside those exceptions currently qualifies — meaning the entire active trillion-dollar club consists of these American giants.
Here they are, ranked approximately by current market cap (values fluctuate daily but are all well above $1T as of late November 2025):

Nvidia (NVDA) – ~$4.6–5.0 trillion
Dominant in AI chips/GPUs; briefly the world's most valuable company multiple times in 2025.

Apple (AAPL) – ~$4.0–4.1 trillion
iPhone ecosystem, services, and wearables powerhouse.

Microsoft (MSFT) – ~$3.5–3.9 trillion
Cloud (Azure), AI (via OpenAI), Office, and Windows.

Amazon (AMZN) – ~$2.4–2.7 trillion
E-commerce, AWS cloud, and advertising.
Alphabet (GOOGL) – ~$2.0–2.3 trillion
Google search, YouTube, cloud, and Waymo self-driving.

Meta Platforms (META) – ~$1.6–1.7 trillion
Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and metaverse/AI investments.

Broadcom (AVGO) – ~$1.7 trillion
Semiconductors and infrastructure software (boosted by AI custom chips and VMware acquisition).

Tesla (TSLA) – ~$1.4–1.5 trillion
Electric vehicles, energy, autonomy/robotics; rejoined the club solidly in mid-2025.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) – ~$1.0–1.1 trillion
Warren Buffett’s conglomerate (insurance, railroads, consumer brands); became the first non-tech U.S. company to reliably hit/sustain $1T.

Eli Lilly (LLY) – Just crossed or hovering ~$1.0–1.1 trillion
Pharma leader driven by blockbuster weight-loss/diabetes drugs (Mounjaro/Zepbound).

[Zathras]

This is how this sounds:
Saudi to India: “Can you design us a futurist city?”
India: “No problem, just send us a bunch of cash.”
India back home: “These guys are even dumber than the Americans”

[Organic Panic]

Just because a bunch of low IQ inbred nomads got money from oil does not mean their IQ has improved.

[USA-FRANCE]

USA-FRANCE said:
“America is Europe’s child.
Historically speaking, Europe’s investments in America is so massive, it’s beyond biblical!”

SmokingJoe answers:
“Now why don’t we talk about the hundreds of Billions probably Trillions of dollars (in today’s money) that America has poured into Euro after WW II, starting with Marhsal Aid and then the hundreds of billions of US dollars spent by America in NATO to defend the hapless Europeans since WWII?”

USA-FRANCE:
You are shockingly unaware about basic historical facts.
Let me explain:

After WWII, Europe wasn’t sitting around waiting for charity. The Marshall Plan wasn’t some magical, one-way money fountain. It was, among other things, a mechanism that pushed Europe to buy American manufactured goods, American machinery, American grain, American everything. The dollars America sent over were tethered to American production. That means the money boomeranged straight back into the U.S. industrial base. Factories ran around the clock. Corporate profits ballooned. The American middle class exploded. Washington didn’t just “give”; it sold, and Europe paid. Very rich of you to omit this… or you simply are not aware about history.

Then add NATO: Europe didn’t get “free protection.” Europeans bought American weapons, American tech, American logistics, American contracts. Decade after decade. You don’t get an economy the size of a small sun by handing out freebies. You get it by having an entire continent as your customer base! Right? Europe is behind America’s wealth which started right after WWII.

And WHO were the first courageous settlers and pioneers who started America?
All Europeans! (Even though the Indians were there first… they didn’t build America as we know it today).

So when you throw around those “hundreds of billions” like a bored accountant, you skip the part where Europe’s purchases turned American industry into a monster. Europe rebuilt itself while funding the greatest manufacturing boom in U.S. (and possibly the world’s) history.

[SmokingJoe]

Reality:

Effects and Achievements
The Marshall Plan proved highly successful:
European industrial production surged, exceeding pre-war levels by 35–50% in many sectors (e.g., steel, chemicals, engineering) by the early 1950s.
Gross national products in recipient countries rose 15–25% during the plan's timeframe.
It sparked the “Wirtschaftswunder” (economic miracle) in West Germany and similar booms elsewhere, laying the foundation for the European Economic Community ( precursor to the EU).
Politically, it strengthened democratic institutions, reduced communist influence (e.g., in France and Italy), and solidified the division of Europe during the Cold War.

Historians widely regard it as one of the most effective foreign aid programs in history, demonstrating that targeted economic support could achieve both humanitarian and strategic goals.

[gleeaikin]

The Marshall Plan was a successful effort to not make the punitive mistakes implemented after we won WW1, but laid the tracks for Hitler to chug to power in the 1930s.

See my comment #22,314, at the Attack on Europe thread, regarding opportunities for Trump to make positive moves, or have failures depending on how he handles issues of real estate, economic development, and military development in the next few years. These thoughts are especially aimed at his potential moves that affect the Ukraine/Russia war and possible peace.

[BroJoeK]

SmokingJoe: “Now why don’t we talk about the hundreds of Billions probably Trillions of dollars (in today’s money) that America has poured into Euro after WW II,"

Marshall Plan per country, 1948 - 1952:

In 1948 dollars, the total Marshall Plan came to about $13.3 billion, which you might argue is only $173 billion in today's inflated money.
However, in terms of the relative national efforts required for the US to provide $13.3 billion in 1948-1952, compared to our GDP, in today's values, it's over $1.4 trillion.

And in terms of its value to war-broken European economies, it was vastly more important than even $1.4 trillion suggests.

And yes, about 2/3 of that money was spent purchasing American products like wheat, flour, meat, and other food staples, coal, oil, cotton, steel, farm tractors, industrial machinery and infrastructure equipment to rebuild railroads, bridges, ports and electric power grids, etc.
The other 1/3 of Marshall Plan funding was used to purchase European made goods for European customers.

About 90% of the Marshall Plan was grants, not loans.

So, it was a big deal, and I've never seen anybody try to argue that the US would be better off today if we had NOT done the Marshall Plan.

On the other hand, the precedent it set, of the US willing to shell out untold billions, even trillions of dollars without demanding reasonable returns on our investments was not good for our own long term financial health, and so contributed to today's financial mess wherein the US national debt is larger than our inflated GDP, and annual deficits are running around 7% of GDP.

That situation is not sustainable, and the mindset which created it needs to finally change.

[SmokingJoe]

Zellensky read too much of that history and decided America owes him/Ukraine hundreds of Billions of free US tax payer dollars.
That worked under the corrupt Biden regime.
Didn't hold any water under Trump.
That first Trump/Zellensky meeting was the dnd of that nonsense.
80 years after WW II, its long past time for Europeans to take care of their own problems, especially since Ukraine is not even in NATO.