Saudi Arabia announced a wild plan to build a floating, 8-sided city

• Saudi Arabia said it is building an eight-sided floating city in the Red Sea called Oxagon.
• It's the latest mega-project announced as part of MBS' vision for the futuristic region Neom.

Saudi Arabia announced its latest ambitious project, an eight-sided city that would float on the Red Sea.

According to a press release, Oxagon is to sit at the edge of Neom, a newly-created region set to be 33 times the size of New York City located in the kingdom's northwest. Neom's centerpiece is an under-construction smart city of the same name.

A dramatic but vague promotional video for Oxagon posted to Twitter by Neom on Tuesday said Oxagon would be the world's largest floating structure and be "home to the world's first fully automated port and integrated logistics hub."

—NEOM (@NEOM) November 16, 2021

Neom did not say how much the Oxagon project would cost or how the city would stay afloat.

The Red Sea is one of the world's busiest trade routes, with 10% of all global trade passing through each year.

Neom is the brainchild of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the flagship project of his 13-year plan to modernize the conservative kingdom, dubbed "Vision 2030."

Neom is funded by the kingdom's Public Investment Fund (PIF). Crown Prince Mohammed is chairman of both Neom and the PIF.

In a statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency on Tuesday, Crown Prince Mohammed said: "Oxagon will be the catalyst for economic growth and diversity in Neom and the kingdom, further meeting our ambitions under Vision 2030."

"It will contribute to Saudi Arabia's regional trade and commerce, and support creating a new focal point for global trade flows. I am pleased to see that."

The Oxagon announcement follows those of other ambitious projects across Saudi Arabia, including:

• "The Line," a proposed carbon-zero city running through the Neom region slated to be built along a 105-mile line ending at the Red Sea.
• "The Rig," a theme park built atop an abandoned oil rig in the Arabian Gulf.
• The "Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Non Profit City," a planned city district in the capital of Riyadh that would house nonprofit companies and sustainable businesses.

A number of Crown Prince Mohammed's projects were hit with delays during the pandemic, but work on Neom remains in progress. A former US diplomat previously told Insider that the crown prince's political success is "to a considerable extent tied to the success of" projects like these.