As President Trump argues the acquisition of Greenland is key to the economic security of the United States, he is flanked by wealthy investors who have eyed the island as a potentially lucrative venue for mining metals and minerals.
Among them is his commerce secretary nominee, Howard Lutnick, who has a financial stake in the island’s mining promise through an investment his financial firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, holds in a company called Critical Metals Corp., securities filings show. Critical Metals plans to start the mining process as soon as 2026, according to company executives.
Mr. Lutnick, whose Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, plans to resign as chief executive Cantor Fitzgerald, a privately held firm, if confirmed. His interests in the firm would be sold off within 90 days of his confirmation, according to his government ethics agreement, and during that period he would not participate in any matter that has a “direct and predictable effect” on the firm unless he received a waiver that allowed him to do so.
As head of the Commerce Department, which promotes the interests of U.S. businesses abroad, Mr. Lutnick would oversee all tariff and trade policy, Mr. Trump has said. That could include Greenland, if the president’s efforts to expand the country’s role on the island are successful.
It remains to be seen whether Mr. Lutnick would recuse himself entirely from policy issues related to Greenland. Neither he nor the White House responded to requests for comment.
American influence on Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, could benefit miners there, potentially enriching investors in Critical Metals and, in turn, Mr. Lutnick’s former business partners at Cantor Fitzgerald, which he ran for more than 30 years.
Critical Metals has been pushing for U.S. government financing for its project since last fall, but was told to shelve its request until the new administration arrived in Washington, according to Tony Sage, its chief executive. Mr. Sage said he regarded Mr. Lutnick and his firm as a possible conduit for discussion of future investment by the U.S. government.
“They could” be beneficial, Mr. Sage said, adding, “Having an investor, already, does help.”
Mr. Lutnick is one of several supporters of Mr. Trump who have ties to investments in Greenland and could be in position to shape the president’s thinking on the subject.
That circle includes the Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen, the tech entrepreneur Sam Altman and the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Either as individuals or through their companies, all three have donated either to Mr. Trump’s re-election efforts or his inaugural committee. Through their venture capital firms, all three are also investors in KoBold Metals, a privately held company based in Berkeley, Calif., that has explored for minerals and metals in Greenland.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Andreessen’s venture capital firm declined to comment. Mr. Altman and a spokesman for Mr. Bezos did not respond to requests for comment.
A spokesman for KoBold Metals declined to say whether the firm, which surveyed Disko Island off the west coast of Greenland for mining opportunities in 2022, was likely to do business there in the future.
Greenland’s glaciers, freezing weather and paucity of roads and other infrastructure have long made it a difficult environment for investment. Some mining executives and investors believe that an enhanced arrangement with the United States could benefit U.S. national security and create economic opportunities for both sides.
“I think it could be a win-win for the U.S. and for Greenland, regardless of how it ends up, whether it’s just a closer working relationship or whether we provide defense or something to Greenland,” said Peter Leidel, whose private-equity firm, Yorktown Partners, holds a controlling stake in a mining project there.
The idea of purchasing Greenland has been a hobby horse for Mr. Trump for many years. During his first term, he framed it as an opportunity to expand the United States’ global footprint, and in 2019 he even privately floated the possibility of trading Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, for Greenland, according to Peter Baker and Susan Glasser’s book “The Divider.” But his hopes fizzled amid objections from Denmark, the U.S. ally that oversees Greenland, and some of Mr. Trump’s advisers dismissed the idea as divisive and outlandish, according to the book.
Under former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the United States continued pushing for enhanced involvement in Greenland, albeit more quietly. State Department officials traveled to the island last year to discuss its natural resources, and the U.S. Export-Import Bank expressed interest in financing a graphite mining project operated by a British company. Mining executives said they also hoped that Mr. Biden’s push for clean energy might benefit their rare-earth mining efforts, given that rare earths are essential components in electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels.
Undercutting China’s dominance in rare earths mining was also part of Biden administration’s calculus, mining executives recalled. “They made very clear that they would like this material to go to the U.S.,” said Greg Barnes, who spoke to U.S. officials before selling his stake in the Tanbreez rare-earths mine in southern Greenland to Critical Metals, the New York-based company in which Cantor Fitzgerald is invested, last summer. That concern over Chinese involvement is almost certain to loom even larger under Mr. Trump, who has long cast China as a malign influence in U.S. and global affairs.
Greenland got little or no airtime during Mr. Trump’s 2024 campaign. But on Dec. 22, as he announced Ken Howery as his choice for U.S. ambassador to Denmark on his social media site, Mr. Trump called “ownership and control” of the island “an absolute necessity.” In other posts and comments that followed, he described Greenland as crucial to U.S. national security.
Denmark has so far resisted the idea of a sale. But its efforts to find advocates in Washington have so far foundered. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., undertook a brief good will tour around Greenland this month. And the elder Mr. Trump has refused to rule out the idea of taking Greenland by force.
In interviews, mining executives and investors in Greenland said they weren’t banking on any particular outcome to Mr. Trump’s push for the island. But most of them said the level of interest the trans-Atlantic debate had stirred, and the resources it could draw to Greenland’s mining opportunities, was a net positive.
“The Trump presidency, I think, enhances our little investment,” said Mr. Leidel, the Yorktown Partners investor, who donated $315,000 to Mr. Trump’s re-election efforts, according to federal records. He said that his donation was motivated by a desire for the United States “to do well,” and not by any expectations around mining in Greenland.
Kitty Bennett contributed research.
