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A new billion-dollar waterfront community planned in South America is among the latest proposed developments that aim to create a “city of the future” built around sustainability, technology, and economic innovation.
Praxis, the company behind the project, announced this month that it had selected Uruguay as the location for the development for “the landscape, the stability, and the space,” the company noted. The new city, known as “+Colonia,” to be built next to the city of Colonia del Sacramento, is expected to welcome residents in mid-2027.
Praxis said it plans to mobilize $1 billion in investment over the next three years to build “the world’s first digital nation,” creating a community focused on residences, hospitality, culture, and a future shaped by artificial intelligence (AI).
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While supporters of the project point to the quality of life that +Colonia could offer, critics have questioned whether its vision for an AI-driven community can work as a functioning city and whether the investment targets are realistic.
From Saudi Arabia to California, here we unpack other ambitious new cities proposed in recent years that aim to reinvent how millions of people could live.
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California Forever in the US
Backed by a group of Silicon Valley investors, California Forever hopes to be “America’s next great city” and the first walkable city built in a century.
The project aims to create a “medium density, walkable city with a network of city parks, plazas and playgrounds, built from the ground up to be sustainable and protected from climate change,” a spokesperson from California Forever told Newsweek.
Set in Solano County, between the Bay Area and Sacramento, the project is described as the “largest construction labor agreement in history.” It aims to create 530,000 new jobs, 170,000 new homes, and new sources of clean energy for the area.
It is arguably the only place in America that combines land, rail, sea, and air, through major transportation corridors, with its proximity to the Travis Air Force Base and the waterfront land of the Sacramento Deep Water Ship Channel. “As America reindustrializes, there is no better place to do it than Solano,” the California Forever spokesperson said.
The development is centered on a major expansion of Suisun City, a small city in Solano County, just northeast of San Francisco. The company is working with local officials on a proposed annexation and redevelopment plan for Suisun City.
The spokesperson said: “California Forever continues to progress on schedule through the entitlement process with Suisun City. The next milestone is Suisun City’s publication of the Draft Environmental Impact report, which we expect by year’s end.”
The ambitious project has previously faced controversy over its land acquisitions, concerns over water use, and its environmental impact.
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Woven City in Japan
Toyota's Woven City appears to be among the most advanced examples of a purpose-built future city centred on mobility, aiming to “enhance well-being for all.”
Located within Susono, a city at the foothills of Mount Fuji, Woven City was first revealed in 2020 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the U.S. The city is designed to be a “living laboratory” where residents, researchers, and companies can test new mobility technologies, robotics, and AI systems.
Residents have begun moving into the city since September last year, and as of this month, the city has welcomed around 160 people across 80 households in its first phase of operations.
A spokesperson for Woven City told Newsweek: “Phase 2 construction began in September 2026 and is scheduled for completion in November 2028. Visitors from across Japan will be welcomed to Phase 1 beginning October 1.”
Unlike other proposed utopian cities, Woven City is already operating, but questions remain on whether it can be scaled beyond its current corporate research setting.
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Telosa in the US
Telosa was unveiled in 2021 by billionaire entrepreneur Marc Lore, the former Walmart e-commerce executive.
Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, the proposed city will be centered on a concept of "equitism," with shared land ownership and a focus on sustainability and social equality. Lore said Telosa would be “the most open, the most fair, and the most inclusive city in the world.”
The project envisions eventually housing millions of residents in the U.S., but a final location has yet to be selected. Potential locations include Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Texas or the Appalachian Region, and the first residents are expected to move in by 2030.
Some urban planners have praised the vision, while others question the feasibility of building a new city from scratch and the financing required.
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Rio AI City in Brazil
Rio AI City aims to be “the city of the future,” featuring data center infrastructure powered by renewable energy.
Developed by Elea Data Centers with support from Rio de Janeiro’s municipal government, the multi-billion-dollar development set in the city’s Olympic Park region is said to be one of the world’s largest digital infrastructure initiatives.
The new city aims to operate on renewable energy, with cooling systems that don’t require the use of water and green skin architecture, featuring building facades that incorporate plants and other living elements, as well as a digital zone dedicated to green technology.
The city’s first data center is said to be up and running, while a second data center is expected to begin construction this year.
Some see the new city as a potential catalyst for jobs and economic development, while others have raised questions about the energy demands and environmental footprint associated with large-scale AI infrastructure.
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Oceanix Busan in South Korea
Plans for Oceanix Busan, the world's first floating city—set in the South Korean port city of Busan, the country's second-most populous city after the capital Seoul—were unveiled back in 2022 at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.
This newly built community aims to serve as the "world's first prototype sustainable floating city," featuring flood-proof infrastructure that rises with the sea.
The city aims to supply its own food, energy, and water, using a “closed-loop processing” system that “will turn waste to energy, agricultural feedstock and recycled materials.” The development will consist of three floating platforms connected to each other and to land by bridges.
While many climate experts have welcomed experimentation with floating infrastructure, others have raised questions about the cost, scalability, and long-term practicality of ocean-based urban developments.
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The Line in Saudi Arabia
The Line is a planned linear city that forms the flagship project of NEOM, a vast multi-region development in Saudi Arabia. The city will be 170 kilometers (around 105 miles) long, 200 meters (around 656 feet) wide, and 500 meters (around 1,640 feet) high, spanning desert and mountain terrain. The car-free city, powered by renewable energy, aims to house 9 million people.
A report by Semafor in May said that construction on The Line has been suspended until at least 2030, as the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, prioritizes infrastructure such as ports and data centers.
In June, Semafor reported that NEOM's budget for 2026-2030 included an estimated 60 billion riyals ($16 billion) in payments to contractors to terminate long-term agreements as part of a broader restructuring effort.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the PIF, told Al Arabiya Business in April that while some projects have been delayed, “no project in NEOM has been canceled.”
Newsweek has contacted the teams behind Rio AI City and +Colonia by email, and the teams behind Telosa, The Line, and Oceanix Busan via their online contact forms for comment.
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Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Ben Kelly and Emma Lee-Sang
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