RIYADH: An AI-generated video claiming to show one of the football stadiums for the 2034 FIFA World Cup in Saudi Arabia has gone viral on social media, but officials have confirmed it has no connection to the kingdom’s actual development plans.
The video, which features a glowing football arena built atop a towering skyscraper, was shared by thousands of users across social media platforms, misleading millions into believing it was an official Saudi project.
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While Saudi Arabia has indeed announced plans to construct a football arena within The Line, a futuristic megacity under the NEOM project, the viral clip bears no resemblance to any official design. “This design is completely fake and bears no resemblance to anything Saudi Arabia is planning. It appears in no official sources,” a source familiar with the matter told AFP.
Saudi Arabia is set to construct the world’s first “sky stadium” that will be 1,150 feet above the ground
pic.twitter.com/KlETcrhYjJ— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) October 28, 2025
The AFP digital investigation team traced the viral video back to the Instagram account “hyporaultraworks,” known for posting AI-generated futuristic architecture concepts. The clip was described by its creator as “an aerial flyby of a skyscraper stadium design.”
The account holder confirmed to AFP that they produced the video, writing on Facebook: “What started as a simple AI concept has taken on a life of its own — over 50 million views later, our ‘Sky Stadium’ design has gone global (and slightly off the rails).” They added that the concept was “purely imaginative,” with no link to Saudi Arabia or the 2034 World Cup.
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Saudi Arabia, which will host the 2034 FIFA World Cup, continues to invest heavily in infrastructure and mega-projects as part of its Vision 2030 development plan.