AI-generated stadium video goes viral amid Saudi 2034 FIFA World Cup hype

An AI-generated video claiming to show one of the stadiums for the 2034 FIFA World Cup in Saudi Arabia has gone viral, fooling millions of people on social media.

The video shows a glowing football stadium atop a skyscraper. Thousands of users shared it, thinking it was an official design from the Saudi government.

However, officials have confirmed that the video is completely fake and not connected to any real World Cup infrastructure. “This design is completely fake and bears no resemblance to anything Saudi Arabia is planning. It appears in no official sources,” a source told AFP.

Saudi Arabia is indeed working on some massive urban projects, like “The Line”, a futuristic city under construction, but none of these include the stadium shown in the viral video. Several French media outlets that first reported on the clip have since deleted or corrected their stories.

According to AFP, the video was created by an Instagram account named @hyporaultraworks. The creator later told AFP that it was just a personal design made for fun.

“What started as a simple AI concept has taken on a life of its own — over 50 million views later, our design has gone global,” the user wrote on Facebook, adding that it had “nothing to do with any Saudi project.”

While Saudi Arabia continues to invest heavily in sports and tourism projects to prepare for the 2034 FIFA World Cup, this viral video is not one of them — just another reminder of how realistic AI-generated content can easily mislead people online.

Read More: Pinterest launches AI-powered voice search for visual discovery