Big Tech’s Got Eyes on Greenland for Minerals, Data Centers

Have you ever thought about the tiny pieces that make up your smartphone? The batteries used in electric vehicles? How about where the photos on your smartphone live (because yes, the “cloud” is a real place)? Where your personal data goes when you accept the terms and conditions on social media?

These things have all become commonplace in American’s daily lives, but what actually makes them work feels like a mystical, unanswered question. Maybe surprisingly, the answer is minerals and, less surprisingly, massive data centers.

Greenland is a mineral-rich Arctic island, but mining has never taken place on the giant ice sheet. As President Donald Trump continues to insist that the United States “needs” the island, tech billionaires and strategic mineral advisory firms alike are wondering how to build industry both above and below the surface.

GreenMet hopes to build the world’s most powerful data center on Greenland’s west coast in Kangerlussuaq, with a target hydropower date of 2027, according to Vice President of Operations Sabrina Katz. Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates have invested in KoBold Metals, a critical mineral mining operations company.

What’s the big deal with minerals?

Rare earth elements (REE) and critical minerals are a critical piece of modern technologies, including everything from screens to military equipment.

“There are 17 elements that are considered rare earth minerals,” Dr. Ayman EL-Refaie said. “From an electrical machine perspective, there are five of those elements that are used in permanent magnets. There is neodymium, samarium, praseodymium, terbium and dysprosium.”

EL-Refaie is a professor at Marquette University teaching in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. He said that these five elements are an integral piece of powering modern technologies. They are essential in creating permanent magnets—or materials that create their own persistent magnetic field without an external power source. Each element has its own unique properties and create a much stronger magnetic force than electromagnetics, like ordinary batteries.

But the name is a “misnomer,” professor Dr. Ian Lange from the Colorado School of Mines said.

“They’re not rare, they’re everywhere,” he said. “They’re all over the place.”

Rare earths are found all over the world, including in the U.S., but large-scale mining and processing operations largely occur in China. The 17 elements are found together due to their nearly identical chemical properties, making it difficult to parse out the five valuable elements. The other 12 are “basically trash,” Lange said.

China has a chokehold on the supply of rare and critical minerals thanks to the country’s lax environmental and labor regulations. Critical minerals are also integral to energy, manufacturing and national security, which the U.S. Geological Survey defines as “those that are essential to the economic or national security of the United States.”

The 2025 USGS list of critical minerals includes over 60 different minerals and elements.

Katz said that GreenMet has seen an increase in mining as the Trump administration has put more emphasis on mineral supply, and access to Greenland’s mineral dense land could make the U.S. a major player in REE and critical mineral demand.

But Greenland’s harsh Arctic climate makes mining not only expensive but difficult, and whether the benefits outweigh the cost is up for debate. “Not doing this would not only help the United States and our allies, but it would also build up the workforce in Greenland,” Katz said. “It hasn’t been done before, even though it’s been always kind of been a question.”

Both EL-Refaie and Lange expressed doubt that the U.S. really needs Greenland for its minerals. Even Trump has downplayed the need for rare earths, saying “that’s not the reason we need it” at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2026 in Davos, Switzerland.

“Greenland has nothing to do with anyone else’s interest in these minerals. The Greenland thing, I think, as we’ve seen, is pretty overplayed. It’s just not that big of a deal,” Lange said. “Many, many other deposits we can go for if we need it, if we need these rare minerals. It’s an interesting scenario I guess we find ourselves in.”

And could mining in Greenland really happen?

Katz is right: mining in Greenland has always been a question. Some mining operations have occurred on the island, including during World War II for cryolite and at the lead-zinc Black Angel Mine in northwestern Greenland.

Mining for rare earths, though—which Greenland ranks eighth globally for—has never happened.

“Greenland has, for many years, pursued a line of inviting mining companies into agreements. As I say, Greenland is not for sale, but open for business,” Dr. Frank Sejersen of the University of Copenhagen said. “They are trying, year after year, to attract funding, for mining projects and attract companies. In that sense, there are no restrictions [on mining] in the mindset.”

Sejersen teaches in the Greenlandic and Arctic studies department and has a long history of studying and working with environmental, human rights and political issues in the Arctic. He is also very knowledgeable on mining in Greenland.

Greenland is a democratic country, and the Greenlandic Inuit are spiritually and culturally tied to the Arctic environment. Sejersen said there are many rules and regulations on mining, “but not to avoid it, but to make sure that the environment is not harmed unnecessarily and that that kind of mining will benefit Greenland.”

He also said that the harsh conditions and infrastructure make it difficult—it’s cold, expensive, difficult to recruit people and to top it off, there are no roads.

As climate change warms the Arctic, though, Greenland faces serious melting and warming of the waters. It could impact Greenland’s important fishing industry part-time, Sejersen said. There’s a chance mining could boost the island’s economy, but not without directly impacting local communities.

“You have had mines where large communities [begin] developing around the mine. So, you have different kinds of dynamics depending on the proximity of the mine, and the integration of the local population,” he said. “The problem is that if you have a mine, you need qualified staff, and Greenland would like that qualified staff to be recruited from the preexisting population. Let’s say you want to open a mine, and you need 10 electricians. You would recruit the 10 best electricians in Greenland, and that means that some of the communities will lose their electrician.”

Mining would both develop new communities and damage existing communities. The isolated nature of mining communities and existing towns in Greenland make it difficult to merge the dynamics.

While mining could certainly be a profitable industry for Greenland, Sejersen said, especially if the population decides to become independent from Denmark, there are many logistical issues to address before the industry could really take off.

And data centers?

GreenMet plans to build a giant data center in a remote town in western Greenland. Kangerlussuaq is most known for its airport, abundant wildlife and the Arctic Circle Trail.

Greenland’s location is good for more than just minerals. The town’s subarctic climate—long, cold winters and mild summers—require less cooling for the data center. The building would also be positioned on the eastern end of a deep fjord, allowing for hydropower.

“It came about because, GreenMet started in critical minerals, but we realized that the larger picture is energy dominance. It’s just everything, and it all connects,” Katz said. “There’s so much untapped land in Greenland, and this location’s just so perfect for it. We’re partnering up with CoreWeave and other major data center players to do this, but obviously, it’s a long process.”

Data centers have become a central piece in conversations around artificial intelligence, but they do more than power chatbots like ChatGPT or Gemini. Simply, they are giant warehouses full of servers that hold data, ranging from personal emails and photos to corporate records and databases.

When an image gets saved to the “cloud,” it’s really being stored somewhere on Earth, requiring massive amounts of resources to keep the data center up and running.

Greenland’s strict environmental regulations pose issues for building a hyperscale data center, but Katz said she is not currently aware of any environmental concerns due to the project, and said that GreenMet would cooperate and adjust to any regulations set in place.

Does Trump want Greenland for its minerals?

Both Trump and mineral experts have expressed doubt that the U.S. needs Greenland to fix the country’s position in the global supply of minerals, but that doesn’t mean tech billionaires and private companies aren’t eager to explore the untapped industry.

Even though Sejersen said that “Greenland is not for sale, but open for business,” it is currently hard to imagine a large-scale mining operation taking place on the Arctic island anytime soon. That could certainly change if conversations between the U.S., Denmark and Greenland progress.

Trump has continually said that he wants Greenland for its strategic location, benefitting U.S. national security and his plan for a “Golden Dome,” but his administration has also emphasized the important of REE, including $134 million in funding for mineral supply chains.

But even as GreenMet attempts to spearhead this new industry, they are keeping the people of Greenland at the forefront, Katz said.

“It doesn’t matter who’s in office in the United States. It doesn’t matter who’s in office in Greenland. It’s literally just about bringing economic growth, stability and helping everyone,” she said.

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This story is part of a semester-long investigative reporting project into Greenland’s people, history, and culture. It was created by an advanced reporting class in the Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies program at UW-Milwaukee. Other stories from the project are available on Edge of the Arctic: Greenland, the Land of the People.

This work was made possible through the support of MPC Endowment Ltd., the philanthropic affiliate of the Milwaukee Press Club, and a private donor.