How tall is the tallest skyscraper? Saudi Arabia would soon like to answer this question with an incredible 1,000 meters

The Jeddah Tower will soon outshine superlative buildings worldwide (Image source: jec.sa)

Key facts at a glance:

• The skyscraper surpasses the current skyscraper record holder by over 170 meters.
• Construction of the Jeddah Tower began in 2010 but was unexpectedly canceled in 2017.
• The skyscraper will house hotel rooms, offices, residential spaces, shopping centers and other facilities. But what does this magnificent building have to do with Elon Musk?

This new, largest skyscraper in the world from Dubai is said to have a remarkable height of 1,000 meters. That would make it bigger than the Eiffel Tower in Paris, stacked three times on top of each other.

We are talking about the Jeddah Tower from Dubai, whose lengthy construction could very soon continue after years of interruption.

But who is behind the construction of the super skyscraper, why could the ambitious monumental building now see its completion – and what does this all have to do with Twitter?

Groundbreaking ceremony for the Jeddah Tower and the world’s tallest skyscrapers

Construction of the Jeddah Tower began in 2010 – and was suddenly canceled in 2017. Now the Jeddah Economic Company, the company behind the proverbial “Tower of Babel,” is announcing that construction work will continue.

A posting on

Link to Twitter content

Back in 2008, billionaire Alwaleed bin Talal announced the construction of the super building for an amount of $1.3 billion. Incidentally, Talal is also the second largest shareholder in the microblogging platform X, after Elon Musk himself.

The prince’s desired goal: to replace the Burj Khalifa, also in Dubai, as the tallest skyscraper in the world. For comparison: The Burj Khalifa is 828 meters high. When completed, the Jeddah Tower will have a total height of 1,000 meters. This would mean that the Jeddah Tower would surpass the previous top skyscraper by over 170 meters.

High, higher, the highest. The Jeddah Tower is about to break the world record for the tallest skyscraper in the world. (Image source: jec.sa)

Would you like another comparison? Hardly any other city in the West is as famous for its skyscrapers as New York. The Chrysler Building there with its aesthetic Art Deco crown is 319 meters high, the Empire State Building reaches 443 meters, and the One World Trade Center reaches 541 meters.

Who is building the Jeddah Tower – and what happens next?

Dubai is home to numerous impressive buildings and wants to attract tourists. Examples beyond the Jeddah Tower include the Palm Islands or the gigantic Moon Hotel.

The monumental building, originally called the “Kingdom Tower,” was designed by the American architectural firm Adrian Smith & Gordon Gill. The construction on site was carried out by the Saudi Arabian construction and real estate company Saudi Binladin Group.

During the first seven years, construction progressed very slowly. By the time the project was canceled in 2017, only about a third of the tower had been completed – 63 of the planned 252 floors.

The construction of the Jeddah Tower has so far taken seven years. Construction has been paused since 2017. (Image source: jec.sa)

Now, six years after the project was shut down, the former Kingdom Tower is being revived under the new name Jeddah Tower. According to media reports, the construction and real estate company Saudi Binladin Group is no longer involved.

Now 14 international companies have been called upon to take over the work that the Saudi Binladin Group had begun and to complete the magnificent building. The call went out to companies from China, South Korea and Sweden – but also from Saudi Arabia itself. The deadline for signing the contract was set for the end of this year.

Glittering and sparkling: This is what the Jeddah Tower should look like after completion. (Image source: jec.sa)

Once completed, the skyscraper will house a large hotel, office and residential spaces, shopping centers, cafes, fitness studios and similar locations. The hotel was originally intended to be a branch of the luxury chain “Four Seasons”. To ensure that visitors and residents can move quickly through the skyscraper, 58 high-speed elevators will also be installed.

It remains to be seen whether the construction costs of 1.3 billion US dollars announced in 2008 will be met by the time the building is ready for use, or whether they have long since been exceeded.

Are you watching with curiosity the construction of the new, tallest skyscraper in the world? Or can you no longer see the sky after Shanghai Tower, Fairmont Makkah Clock Tower, Ping An International Finance Center and other tower buildings? Do you like super buildings scratching the sky like this, or do you see this as an international competition to see who has the biggest monolith standing around?