Saudi Arabia’s JEC Tower nears 100 floors on its rise to become the world’s tallest skyscraper

Construction on what is set to become the tallest building on the planet is quickly nearing a significant checkpoint. Saudi Arabia’s JEC Tower is closing in on the 100-floor mark, bringing it one step closer to its planned completion in 2028.

As of November, last year, the tower had reached 69 floors. By late December, engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti confirmed it had climbed past 80 floors, and local, unofficial reports suggest it may already stand at around 84. If the current pace holds, the structure is expected to reach 100 floors within weeks, placing it among the roughly 25 buildings worldwide that have reached that height.

Even so, the project still has a long way to go. The tower’s architects, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill, recently stated that the final design will include at least 157 floors and rise above 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) in Jeddah, though its exact final height remains undisclosed. Once completed, it will tower well above the Burj Khalifa and stand nearly twice as tall as One World Trade Center, the tallest skyscraper in the United States.

Inside, the JEC Tower will feature the world’s highest observation deck, along with a luxury hotel, office spaces, and high-end residential apartments. Visitors will be transported by double-deck elevators traveling at speeds of up to 10 meters (30 feet) per second—fast, though still slower than the record-holding elevators in Shanghai Tower.

Formerly known as Kingdom Tower and Jeddah Tower, the JEC Tower will serve as the centerpiece of a new urban district. Led by Saudi Prince Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud, the project has been in development for more than a decade. Construction previously stalled around the 60th floor and was paused for several years, with reports attributing the delay to political upheavals linked to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The tower is just one of several massive “gigaprojects” underway in Saudi Arabia as the country pushes to reinvent itself as a global tourism hub, alongside ambitious developments such as The Line and the Mukaab.