[A][18] At about one kilometre,[19] Jeddah Tower would be the tallest building or structure in the world,[11] standing 180 m (591 ft) taller than the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

[31] On 2 August 2011, it was publicly announced by Kingdom Holding, the investment company, that a contract had been signed by Saudi Binladin Group (SBG), that construction was going to start soon, and that the tower was expected to take 63 months to complete.

[24] Kingdom Holding is an investment company founded in 1980 and 95% owned by Al-Waleed bin Talal[40] that has assets valued at over $25 billion, with interests in many major companies such as Walt Disney, PepsiCo, Kodak, Apple, Hewlett Packard, Motorola, Time Warner, Newscorp, Pinnacle Infotech Solutions, and Citigroup, as well as real estate in London through its Songbird Estates division.

[49] Later, when the proposal was more serious, they won a design competition between eight leading architectural firms, including Kohn Pedersen Fox, Pickard Chilton, Pelli Clarke Pelli, and Foster + Partners, as well as the firm Smith formerly worked for, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill,[50] which was the final competitor in the competition before AS + GG was chosen.

[57] On 16 August 2011, Langan International officially announced their involvement and that the foundation and piling had to be uniquely designed to overcome subsurface issues such as soft bedrock and porous coral rock, which normally could not support a skyscraper without settling.

[59] A later design for the foundation, to be constructed by Bauer in 2013, calls for 270 bored piles up to 110 m (360 ft) deep, which have to be installed into the difficult ground conditions.

[18] The announcement of the main construction contract signing caused Kingdom Holding Company's stock to jump 3.2% in one day,[67] in addition to KHC already having reported a 21% rise in second-quarter net profit.

The Kingdom Riyadh Land project, a mixed-use commercial and residential development, will generate more than $5.33 billion of total investment and will house up to 75,000 people.

[73] Bauer, a German Foundations equipment manufacturer and contractor was awarded a US$32 million contract to support the initial phases of construction of the Jeddah Tower.

[85] In March 2018, Kingdom Holding Company signed a deal with Orange Business Services to provide information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure to Jeddah Tower.

[86] There was steady progress, but in January 2018, building owner JEC halted structural concrete work with the tower about one-third completed due to labour issues with a contractor following the 2017–19 Saudi Arabian purge.

Jeddah Tower will also use copious stiffening materials to prevent the excessive swaying that would otherwise make the occupants of upper floors nauseated on windy days,[93] including very high strength concrete that will be up to several metres thick in certain parts of the core.

This, along with the highly integrated steel frame and shear walls, is also intended to prevent catastrophic failure of the structure in the event of a terrorist attack.

[94] Like Burj Khalifa, the Jeddah Tower employs a similar Y-shaped, triangular footprint[95] which promotes stability[51] and increases window views,[96] as well as a tapering form,[97] with the sheer height and wind being the biggest structural design challenge.

[93] The triangular footprint and sloped exterior of Jeddah Tower is designed to reduce wind loads; its high surface area also makes it ideal for residential use.

[57] The overall design of the tower, which will be located near both the Red Sea and the mouth of the Obhur Creek (Sharm Ob'hur) where it widens as it meets the Red Sea,[50] as well as having frontage on a man-made waterway and harbour that will be built around it,[99] is intended to look like a desert plant shooting upwards as a symbol of Saudi Arabia's growth and future, as well as to add prominence to Jeddah's status as the gateway into the holy city of Mecca.

[E][51] The tower will also feature a large, roughly 30 m (98 ft) diameter outdoor balcony, known as the sky terrace, on one side of the building for private use by the penthouse floor at level 157;[103][104] it is not the observation deck.

[106] Jeddah Tower will be oriented such that no façade directly faces the sun; it will also use the condensate water from the air conditioning system for irrigation and other purposes throughout the building.

[citation needed] Saudi Binladin Group is the largest construction firm in the Middle East, with over 35,000 workers and hundreds of projects.

Aside from buildings, the firm has also constructed many major infrastructure projects, such as the King Abdulaziz (Jeddah) International Airport expansion and the 775 km (482 mi) six lane Al Qassim Expressway through Saudi Arabia.

[114] When asked his thoughts about this in an interview, Adrian Smith simply stated that they are the largest construction firm in the Middle East, most significant work in Saudi Arabia was done by them, and that it is a very large family that shouldn't be stereotyped by one of its members.

[51] Furthermore, in January 2012, New York City judge George B. Daniels ruled that no charges could be filed against SBG to repay the victims of 9/11 as there is no evidence of the construction firm financially supporting bin Laden after he was removed as a shareholder following the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

[98] As with many other very tall skyscrapers, including the Kingdom Centre in Riyadh, which is generally considered to have sparked the recent significant commercial developments around it in the district of Olaya,[24] much of the intention of Jeddah Tower is to be symbolic as well as to raise the surrounding land value rather than its own profitability.

[118] In July 2011, a report by consultancy EC Harris found that Saudi Arabia is the cheapest country in the Middle East to build in, half as expensive as Bahrain, and 34% cheaper than the United Arab Emirates, where Burj Khalifa is located.

[119] The future towers' site is located in very close proximity to King Abdulaziz (Jeddah) International Airport, and may impact the usable airspace.

[120] As for physical restraints, Bart Leclercq, head of structures for WSP Middle East recently said, "I truly believe that 1 mile, 1.6 kilometres, is within range.

[121] According to Saudi officials, about 900 new homes are needed a day to meet the demand of the rapidly growing population, which has nearly quadrupled in the past four decades.

[125] According to reports by Citi Investment Research & Analysis, $220 billion worth of development, accounting for 36% of all construction spending in the MENA region, will be directly or indirectly beneficial to Jeddah Tower.

[117] Jeddah Tower and City themselves are intended to set an example of green development, using modern technology and having a low carbon footprint relative to the number of people they will support.

[130] Much of the study on this phenomenon was done in 1999 by Andrew Lawrence, a research director at Deutsche Bank who created the "skyscraper index," originally as a joke; however, it illustrated the observation that many of the world's tallest buildings have been built on the eve of financial collapse.