Shock! Donald Trump’s large, audacious ambition to purchase Greenland from Denmark has a tech angle. Ken Howery, named by U.S. President-elect Trump’s decide to be the following ambassador to the nation (and thus chief dealer of any deal), is yet one more a part of the wealthy seam of tech individuals working by means of Trump’s upcoming administration.
A part of the unique “PayPal Mafia” (he was the CFO who helped convey it collectively and promote it to eBay), Howery then went on to co-found the storied VC agency Founders Fund with Peter Thiel and others. He’s additionally an in depth pal of Elon Musk’s.
Howery’s many years of expertise in tech investing and M&A have introduced him near a number of the hardest offers within the Valley. But even so, Greenland is perhaps his longest shot but.
Put merely, Denmark and Greenland are usually not curious about promoting. They’re even slightly bemused on the thought of doing so. “We don’t wish to be Individuals,” Greenland’s Prime Minister Muté Egede mentioned final week.
Howery was the ambassador to Sweden in Trump’s earlier administration, however this profile of Howery in The New York Instances factors out that it was the lengthy odds right here that attracted him to the Denmark job: “The problem of engaged on one of the difficult real-estate transactions on behalf of a real-estate mogul is one that might convey Mr. Howery the type of consideration he prefers,” the paper notes.
It’s not very exhausting to guess what’s attracting Group Trump to Greenland. Ostensibly, Trump has mentioned it’s about geopolitics: “For functions of Nationwide Safety and Freedom all through the World, america of America feels that the possession and management of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” he wrote final yr.
However… it does assist that the Arctic island is believed to have enormous, priceless pure reserves of oil and uncommon earth components, crucial for the manufacturing of batteries and different {hardware}. And it’s chilly — very chilly. That would make it a probably key location for constructing overheating AI information facilities. At a time when the U.S. is on the lookout for methods to be even much less depending on nations like China and Russia for such sources, proudly owning Greenland, by Group Trump logic, might spell safety of a unique sort. Whether or not Howery finds sufficient carrots — or sticks — to get this dialog going, it feels eerily just like the stuff of TV-worthy political drama.
