Ken Howery: the technologist at the center of Trump’s plans for Greenland

Amazing! Donald Trump’s ambitious plan to buy Greenland from Denmark has a technical side. Ken Howery, who was chosen by US President-elect Trump to be the country’s next ambassador (and therefore head of every trade), is part of the rich tech community moving through the incoming Trump administration.

Part of the original “PayPal Mafia” (he was the CFO who helped bring together and sell it to eBay), Howery was also the founder of the famous VC Founders Fund with Peter Thiel and others. He is also a close friend of Elon Musk.

Howery’s years in technology investment and M&A have brought him close to some of the Valley’s most challenging deals. Even so, Greenland may be his longest shot.

In short, Denmark and Greenland do not want to trade. They are a little surprised by such a thought. “We don’t want to be Americans,” the prime minister of Greenland, Muté Egede he said last week.

Howery was ambassador to Sweden during the former Trump administration, but this record Howery’s article in The New York Times said that this long-term failure was what attracted him to the Danish job. he will bring Mr. Howery the care he needs,” the paper said.

It is not difficult to imagine what is attracting Team Trump to Greenland. Apparently, Mr. Trump said that it is about geopolitics: “For the purposes of National Security and International Freedom, the United States of America considers the ownership and control of Greenland very important,” he wrote last year.

But… it helps that the Arctic island is believed to hold large, valuable reserves of oil and rare earths, needed to make batteries and other equipment. And cold – very cold. This can be a very important area in building an AI data center. At a time when the US is looking for ways to reduce its dependence on countries like China and Russia for such things, having Greenland, in the opinion of Team Trump, would call for some kind of security. Whether or not Howery gets enough of a carrot — or a stick — to make this conversation happen, it sounds like the stuff of A political drama worthy of TV.