Island of Hope: How the richest US billionaires are investing in Greenland

Several of the richest Americans, including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, have invested in Greenland after Donald Trump expressed interest in it back in his first term as president, Forbes writes. Here's who the billionaires have invested in the island's economy:

- Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Bloomberg founder Michael Bloomberg have invested in KoBold Metals, a private mining company that has been exploring for rare earth minerals in Greenland. The billionaires, through the Breakthrough Energy fund, participated in an early 2019 investment in the company - it came just months after Trump began considering buying Greenland. The fund also invested in KoBold in a C round in late 2024; the company was valued at nearly $3 billion at the time;

- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, through his venture capital fund Apollo Projects, invested in KoBold in 2022.

KoBold participated in Greenland in the Disko-Nuussuaq project, which searched for valuable rare earth minerals on the island's west coast. The company conducted exploration in 2022, but the project stalled. Last year, KoBold transferred its stake to a partner in exchange for royalties from future project proceeds. Forbes writes that the company is in the process of raising new investment, according to the disclosure.

- PayPal and Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel invested in libertarian startup Praxis in 2021, which aims to create a so-called freedom city on the island - a technologically advanced settlement with minimal corporate regulation.

- Howard Lutnick, before becoming Commerce Secretary in the new Trump administration, ran Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment firm that invested for more than 30 years in Greenland-based mining company Critical Metals Corp.

- Ronald Lauder, heir to cosmetics giant Estée Lauder, has invested in Greenland Water Bank, a Greenland mineral water bottling company co-owned by the husband of Greenland's foreign minister, according to Danish newspaper Politiken. Lauder is also involved in a hydroelectric project on Greenland's largest lake through Greenland Development Partners, a consortium registered in Delaware that owns a stake in Greenland Investment Group, an investment company headed by former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Josette Sheeran.

It was Lauder, according to former White House adviser John Bolton, who allegedly pitched Trump on the idea of buying Greenland during his first term as president and was even willing to broker negotiations with Denmark. The billionaires go way back - they both attended the Wharton School of Business in the 1960s - and Trump received financial support from Lauder during his first presidential campaign in 2016.

Lauder has made no secret of his interest in Greenland and its resources, Forbes notes. In February 2025, shortly after Trump returned to the White House, Lauder published a column in The New York Post in which he outlined several options for increasing U.S. influence over Greenland without buying the island - from a free trade agreement to fully activating the 1951 defense agreement, which gives the U.S. exclusive jurisdiction over defense facilities in Greenland under NATO. The U.S. now operates the Pituffik base in northwest Greenland and, according to Lauder, Washington could take long-term leases for military bases in areas rich in rare earth element deposits.

None of the billionaires mentioned responded to Forbes' requests for comment.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor