US President Donald Trump has made Greenland a nationwide safety precedence. However behind the rhetoric, this push seems to be carefully tied to the pursuits of America’s expertise sector.
Greenland’s huge territory, wealthy mineral reserves, and small inhabitants make it a sexy gateway to essential assets for superior industries. On this context, the prospect of a US takeover is no surprise. The American tech billionaire was one of many main monetary backers of President Trump’s 2024 election marketing campaign. This sort of help not often comes with out expectations.
Why Greenland is again in President Trump’s focus
Trump first mentioned Greenland in August 2019 throughout his first time period as president. In an interview with reporters, President Trump acknowledged he was contemplating the concept, calling it a “huge actual property deal.” However he acknowledged on the time that the transfer was not a high precedence.
Six years later, President Trump’s listing of priorities has modified.
President Trump canceled a go to to Denmark after the prime minister stated Greenland was not on the market.
Additionally, hoping to keep away from additional face-to-face talks, Xi Jinping declared Hong Kong “unaffordable” to President Trump, and Justin Trudeau declared he would by no means promote Vancouver Island at any price.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) August 21, 2019
What has occurred over the previous few days is no surprise. Greenland got here up always throughout President Trump’s 2024 election marketing campaign. President Trump has repeatedly known as it a missed alternative.
And a couple of month earlier than taking workplace, he stated it was “completely vital” for the US to “personal and management” Greenland.
This obsession with the island did not simply seem out of nowhere. Fairly than being the originator of the concept, Trump seems to be serving extra as a political automobile for realizing current expertise ambitions.
Personal capital’s Arctic ambitions
Over the previous decade, a mixture of tech billionaires, enterprise funds and speculative startups have quietly established themselves round Greenland.
Because the group’s ambitions matured, Mr. Trump emerged as essentially the most energetic technique of translating civilian technological needs into state-sponsored motion.
Greenland’s greatest attraction lies in its reserves of uncommon earth minerals, that are important for contemporary digital gadgets. Since President Trump took workplace, figures akin to Invoice Gates, Michael Bloomberg and Jeff Bezos have proven continued curiosity within the area.
Based on forbesthe three billionaires have invested in KoBold Metals since 2019, shortly after Trump first expressed curiosity in buying Greenland. The funding was made by means of Breakthrough Vitality, a fund led by Gates.
In 2022, OpenAI founder Sam Altman joined as an investor by means of his enterprise capital agency, Apollo Tasks. Different reviews say the corporate additionally has backing from Mark Zuckerberg and hedge funder Andreessen Horowitz.
Past mining, Greenland can be of curiosity as a testing floor for crypto-native governance and financing fashions.
Trump’s longtime ally Peter Thiel additionally helps Praxis. The startup, led by CEO Dryden Brown, goals to determine a so-called “community nation.”
I went to Greenland to purchase it.
This is what occurred:
— Dryden (@drydenwtbrown) November 12, 2024
Praxis publicly explored Greenland as a possible location and raised greater than $525 million to develop a brand new metropolis constructed round relaxed rules and tokenized real-world belongings, positioning the island as a frontier for crypto-enabled city growth.
With Greenland again within the highlight, mining and experimental ventures are repositioning themselves for entry.
In truth, that internet of non-public acquire is now not restricted to onlookers. It now intersects immediately with Trump’s governing circle.
Who’re the buyers who’ve direct affect over coverage?
The alignment of Greenland-focused industrial pursuits and President Trump’s institution extends to his administration itself.
Sure people with ties to firms that stand to profit from Greenland’s assets now have a job in immediately influencing U.S. coverage.
President Trump’s Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, beforehand headed Cantor Fitzgerald, whose affiliated hedge fund has backed Important Metals, which is pursuing mineral initiatives associated to Greenland.
As The New Republic reported, the buyers behind this firm have vital overlap with these behind Trump Media. Many of those identical figures poured a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} into Trump’s latest presidential marketing campaign.
U.S. diplomatic personnel additionally mirror this convergence.
Elitist billionaires Invoice Gates, Peter Thiel, Sam Altman and Jeff Bezos have focused Greenland as a radical experiment, a so-called free metropolis modeled as a networked state.
The proposal envisions opening up an area for small enterprise operations, which critics describe as a sort of… pic.twitter.com/yw83b9gLxI
— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) January 12, 2026
Final month, President Trump appointed former enterprise capitalist Ken Howley as U.S. ambassador to Denmark. Howery is a former PayPal govt and a longtime colleague of Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, who labored carefully collectively within the firm’s early days.
As Greenland strikes deeper into Washington’s strategic focus, nationwide safety seems to be serving as a public rationale fairly than a main driver. As a substitute, momentum seems to be coming from well-placed billionaires with clear industrial pursuits within the island.
Publish Greenland Company? The submit The tech billionaire behind Trump’s Arctic obsession appeared first on BeInCrypto.
