Explained: Why Trump's Greenland ambition has Silicon Valley fingerprints all over it

“We have to have Greenland," President Donald Trump said last year, just as Vice President JD Vance touched down at a US military base in the frozen island, an autonomous territory of Denmark.

The visit didn't go as planned. Greenlanders took to the streets in protest, and their Prime Minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, called the whole thing disrespectful.

Then, Trump cranked it up in early January. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, he reiterated: "We need Greenland." 

Over the past few weeks, the headline-grabbing statement has turned into something far more calculated, a little too quickly. 

Tech billionaires, AI infrastructure needs, territorial ambition: it's all converging on this massive frozen island most people couldn't find on a map.

Vance, speaking to troops at the base, spoke of security. Denmark wasn't protecting Greenland from "very aggressive incursions from Russia, and from China and other nations," he claimed. He never explained what these incursions actually were.

When reporters asked Trump if he would use military force, he refused to say no. Denmark's response? Greenland isn't for sale, period. 

"If we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU," Nielsen said.

Trump's reaction to that was dismissive: "That's their problem. I don't know who he (Greenland’s prime minister) is. I don't know anything about him. But that’s going to be a big problem for him.” 

Then shortly after, Congressman Randy Fine introduced the ‘Greenland Annexation and Statehood Act’ bill, which, if approved, would authorise the President to use whatever means necessary to bring Greenland into the US. 

What mainstream coverage misses, despite public opposition to Trump's annexation threats, is Greenland's official strategy documents actively courting deeper economic integration with American markets, according to Nurcan Ozgur Baklacioglu, Professor of International Relations at Istanbul University.

“Greenland has always perceived itself as a colonised country aiming to ‘break away from centuries of colonial trading structures’,” Baklacioglu tells TRT World.

However, the academic underlines that it’s not easy to break away from the economic structure of the neo-liberal order “built on colonisation of the ecological system, human and social life and privacy”.

Professor Baklacioglu notes that global crises, from Brexit to the Ukraine invasion, pushed Greenland to seek closer ties with Arctic neighbours, particularly the US, Canada, and Iceland, as a hedge against regional instability and a potential Arctic arms race.

“However, while striving for full independence, Greenland voluntarily integrated itself into the global hegemonic order.”

The billionaire money trail

Here's where things get really interesting. While Trump's been making headlines, a group of tech billionaires, including Sam Altman, Bill Gates, Peter Thiel and Jeff Bezos, have been quietly pouring money into Greenland for years. 

Specifically, into AI-driven mining operations hunting for rare earth elements.

Since at least last April, these Silicon Valley players have been promoting Greenland as a potential ‘freedom city’, basically a libertarian playground with barely any corporate regulations.

The idea apparently caught fire with Ken Howery, Trump's Denmark ambassador, who is expected to negotiate any Greenland takeover.

Howery's resume tells you everything. He co-founded a venture capital firm with Peter Thiel, one of the biggest cheerleaders for these low-regulation urban cities. The vision involves AI hubs, autonomous vehicles, space launch sites, micro nuclear reactors and high-speed rail.

This ‘freedom city’ idea isn't new. Silicon Valley people have been trying to build these for years under different names, startup cities, charter cities etc. Trump even promised to build them in America during his 2023 campaign.

Baklacioglu argues that Greenland's 2024 strategy document revealed a contradiction: pursuing independence by embracing the very free-trade zones and foreign investment policies that could enable resource exploitation.

“Since 2009, Greenland has been seeking full integration into the global market and its institutions, such as the WTO, UN, and NATO.”

“Also, since 2009, Greenland started to promote China’s economic entrance, while Greenlandic leaders have frequently travelled to China to promote the island to potential investors,” Baklacioglu adds.

“All resulted in further global competition between the West and East Arctic countries and companies, lately the intervention threat by Trump, and further militarisation of the island,” she explains.

Why the island matters

Greenland is massive; it is roughly two-thirds the size of India, larger than Mexico, more than three times the size of France, and comparable to Saudi Arabia in land area, yet its population of about 57,000 is smaller than a mid-sized town. 

The US already has a military base there. But the real prize is what's under the ice. 

Greenland is covered by a vast ice sheet spanning about 1.7 million square kilometres, thick enough in places to reach more than three kilometres and holding enough frozen water to raise global sea levels by roughly seven metres if it fully melted.

Greenland also has about 12 percent of the world's rare earth reserves – seventeen different metals like neodymium, dysprosium and lanthanum, that are essential for modern technology. 

But here's the crucial connection: those minerals weren't accessible until recently. As ice melts due to climate change, minerals that were unreachable are suddenly exposed. 

The same environmental crisis behind Greenland's economic problems, shifting fish migration and unstable food supplies, also created the rare earth opportunity that attracted tech investors. 

It's why the "freedom city" vision only became viable in the last few years.

“According to Greenland politicians, the melting of the ice increased the potential for ice and clean water export. They argue that the fresh water is wasted into the ocean, while it can be turned into revenue and benefit economic growth,” says Baklacioglu.  

“Greenlanders also aim for greater competitiveness in aviation, mining, tourism and infrastructure, and stronger supply security through expanded exports to East Asia, including China, Japan, Korea and India.”

“Nevertheless, they forget that the export and overexploitation of the fresh water resources by the high-tech and water industry can cause breakdown in the aquifers and overall deterioration in the ecological system,” she adds.

These rare earth elements go into everything. They are being used in the high-performance magnets that power wind turbines and electric car motors. They're in smartphones. Defence systems. And most importantly, the AI hardware that runs data centres. 

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), China controls the global supply chain, they produce and processes most of it, accounting for around 60 percent of global mining output in 2024.

“Climate change played a tremendous impact on the overall infrastructure of the Arctic and Greenland as temperatures are rising, permafrost is melting, migration patterns of marine mammals and fishes are changing,” Baklacioglu argues.

This ecological disruption hit Greenland's economy hard, the fishing industry that provides over 90 percent of export income became increasingly unstable. Facing economic crisis, Greenland's government turned to what seemed like the only option: opening up to foreign investment and free trade zones.

“At the same time, however, open door policy for foreign companies, investments and export of natural resources and water, can cause colonisation and exploitation of the island’s human and natural resources, which will lead to further deterioration of ecological security,” Baklacioglu explains.

The company at the centre

KoBold Metals is where the money's flowing. The startup launched in 2018 with a pitch that sounded almost too sci-fi: use AI to find minerals better than humans ever could. Their system analyses geological data, satellite imagery, and old drilling records, then tells you where to dig with way more accuracy than traditional prospecting.

By the end of 2024, they raised hundreds of millions. They've been active in Greenland since 2021, working with Bluejay Mining on the Disko–Nuussuaq project on the west coast. They're going after nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum-group metals, and rare earths.

KoBold's technology is perfectly suited for Greenland's situation. Traditional mining exploration requires years of ground surveys in stable conditions. But melting ice revealed new deposits while making the terrain unpredictable.

KoBold's AI can analyse shifting landscapes through satellite data and adjust in real-time. 

The investor list of KoBold Metals is stacked. Bezos, Gates, and Michael Bloomberg started putting money back in 2019 through Breakthrough Energy, Gates' fund for green energy tech. They came back for more in December 2024, KoBold's Series C round valued the company at almost $3 billion based on a $537 million investment. 

The timeline of events is quite interesting. Bezos, Gates and Bloomberg first invested in early 2019. That was just months after Trump considered buying Greenland during his first term. 

Each billionaire has their own reason, but they all need the same thing. Altman needs rare earths to build more AI infrastructure. Gates needs them for the renewable energy tech he's betting on. Bezos needs them for Amazon's data centres and cloud computing. 

Greenland fits into what Trump's doing with foreign policy since winning. He ran on isolationism, America First, staying out of other countries' business. 

Then he won and started talking about annexing Canada and transforming Gaza's to ‘the Riviera of the Middle East’ after clearing out genocided, displaced Palestinians.

Greenland is a bit different though; it's sitting at the intersection of everything that matters right now. AI revolution's hunger for materials, China-independent supply chains, melting Arctic ice, opening new shipping routes, Silicon Valley's ambitions and Greenland’s push to open itself to the world eyeing deeper economic engagement.

Baklacioglu argues this is the trap of modern colonialism: countries trying to gain independence think free trade and foreign investment will set them free. Instead, they end up getting exploited in new ways, only this time by corporations instead of colonial empires.

“As the ice melts and access increases, Greenland may find itself becoming a chemical dumping ground for global industries," she adds.