Neom has appointed Naif al Rabeah as the acting CEO of its digital business subsidiary, Tonomus.

Al Rabeah will also serve as the former’s sector head of technology and digital. DCD has approached Neom for comment.

Al Rabeah previously served as Neom’s director for AI, gaming and Web 3.0 products. “I’m excited for the opportunity to lead our talented teams as we accelerate technology and digital transformation and contribute to the vision of both Tonomus and Neom,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post announcing his new appointment.

Founded in 2022, Tonomus is the digital business subsidiary of Neom. The latter was created as a corporate vehicle to construct ‘The Line,’ a 170km-long linear city in Saudi Arabia’s northwestern Tabuk province.

In February, the Saudi government’s commitment to this project was publicly scaled back, leading to Neom’s focus pivoting to the development of its industrial city project ‘Oxagon’ into a data center hub. The flagship development in this regard is a 1.5GW AI data center developed in collaboration with DataVolt, due to open in 2028. This follows the opening of the 18,000 sqm (193,750 sq ft) Tonomus.Neom Telecommunications facility in Oxagon in 2023.

Neom’s new priorities were reconfirmed this week by the Saudi Public Investment Fund in its annual report. A major backer of the organisation, the PIF said that Neom “continues to develop a world-class port, an integrated industrial zone, advanced data centers and renewable energy facilities” at its Oxagon industrial site in Tabuk province and that its delivery model had evolved toward the phased implementation of commercially-driven projects “to ensure progress is measurable, resilient and financially sustainable over time.”

Intended as a symbol of Saudi Arabia’s technological ambitions, The Line was instead roundly criticised as unworkable from an urban planning perspective. It has become one of several major capital projects in this vein that have now been canceled or scaled back by the Saudi government amid a mixture of cost overruns and declining oil revenue. According to reporting by Semafor, the Saudi government has spent up to 60 billion SAR ($16bn) to cancel contracts managed by Neom, a sum accounting for a third of its 2026 budget deficit.

Learn more about the data center market in Saudi Arabia and meet with other executives and experts in the region at the DCN Riyadh event next year.