Jeddah Tower: six years stalled after the purge arrested its builder

In 2009 Saudi Arabia announced the tower that would end Burj Khalifa's record: Jeddah Tower, designed by Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill to pass 1,000 metres, with 59 elevators and 12 escalators, at the heart of the multi-billion-dollar Jeddah Economic City. Construction began in 2013 with Saudi Binladin Group as main contractor — a builder with royal contracts going back decades, and a shareholder family at the centre of the project.

In November 2017 the kingdom's anti-corruption purge swept up the project's own inner circle: Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Kingdom Holding, the tower's most famous backer, and Bakr bin Laden, chairman of the Binladin Group, were arrested. Construction halted in early 2018 with the tower roughly 30% built. In March 2018 the state said Bin Laden's 36.2% stake in the group would be transferred to the government after he was charged with corruption; he was released in 2019 after reaching a settlement.

The stall became the story. For six years the world's would-be tallest building stood as a concrete stump, Burj Khalifa kept its record, and the developer's only move was to find a new builder. In 2024 Jeddah Economic Company removed Binladin Group from the project and chose a consortium of El Seif Engineering Contracting and China State Construction Engineering Corp to finish the remaining 70%.

Construction restarted in late 2024, and by December 2025 the tower had passed 80 floors, with completion targeted for 2028. But the gap was real: more than half a decade in which the money sat frozen, the momentum died and the record chase stalled — all because the world's tallest project had been handed to one contractor whose standing with the state was about to collapse.