King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia

Two limos hurtle through the desert north of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, at 110 miles per hour, blown at times into the slow lane by the winds coming off the nearby Red Sea. The delegation from networking giant Cisco Systems (CSCO), including Senior Vice-President Paul Mountford, is running late for a gala groundbreaking ceremony hosted by the Saudi king at one of the biggest construction projects on the planet. King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) is mostly sand dotted by cranes now. But by 2020 the Saudis expect 2 million people to be living in a futuristic metropolis three times the size of Manhattan, with some of the most advanced technology money can buy. As the black Lexuses arrive, one traveler remarks on the frenzied pace, and Mountford laughs. "That was nothing," he says.Not with so much at stake. King Abdullah plans to build four brand-new cities and upgrade the country's infrastructure at a cost of $600 billion over the coming years, and Mountford is chasing scores of similar projects in emerging markets around the world.