Doesn't sound like it's about city planning. Nowadays you can simulate that quite well. No need to pluck down Billions.

City planning with real buildings just doesn't make sense. To iterate solutions you need to be able to change quickly, which doesn't work in this case.

But it says: "... research into applied, market-ready products by providing ‘end to end’ testing and evaluation of emerging technologies and innovations from the world’s public laboratories, universities, and the private sector"

So it seems it's more about testing of technologies inside an urban environment that cannot be tested in real cities (due to risk, exposure, secrecy ?).

Sure sounds a bit sinister if you read between the lines.