Is Greenland the next frontier for AI infrastructure?

2 weeks ago 19

GlobalData

Wed, January 21, 2026 astatine 8:12 AM CST 5 min read

Given Greenland’s strategically positioned determination - betwixt North America and Europe – the territory has agelong been recognised by US policymakers arsenic captious to nationalist security, hosting the US military’s Thule Air Base and offering proximity to Arctic shipping lanes opening arsenic crystal retreats owed to clime change. In caller weeks, Donald Trump has revived speech of the United States acquiring the Danish autonomous territory, arguing that doing truthful would safeguard US information interests and antagonistic Russian and Chinese power successful the Arctic.

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However, Trump’s involvement successful Greenland whitethorn bespeak much than geopolitics. It could besides align with a thrust to unafraid entree to captious minerals needed for next-generation exertion infrastructure, including large-scale AI information centres and powerfulness grids. Greenland is known to person immense endowments of captious minerals - including uncommon world elements (REEs) that are captious for precocious electronics, renewable energy, EVs, and the semiconductor and AI proviso chains. As a result, this places Greenland astatine the centre of strategical assets competition. According to the EU Commission, estimates amusement Greenland holds important quantities of 25 of the EU’s 34 captious earthy materials, underscoring its assets potential. These minerals, specified arsenic copper, nickel, and uncommon earths, are intimately linked to the buildout of high-tech infrastructure and information centres.

Furthermore, fixed that information centre energy depletion globally is acceptable to summation by 50% by 2027 from 2023, according to Goldman Sachs, Greenland could besides beryllium an perfect determination to physique and strategically presumption information centres. From the position of information infrastructure, Greenland’s Arctic clime offers inherent advantages. For example, the people acold ambient clime could dramatically chopped cooling requirements, which presently relationship for astir 40% of a emblematic information centre's vigor consumption. In addition, Greenland's renewable vigor capableness is presently growing, with 70% of Greenland’s vigor generated from hydropower. As a result, entree to renewable hydropower and upwind resources could contiguous an accidental for low-carbon electricity, with aboriginal information centres being powered by surplus greenish energy, different charismatic origin for AI and hyperscale computing hubs. Currently, Greenland has lone 1 operational information centre, situated successful Nuuk, portion GlobalData is presently tracking 1 further information centre operation task successful the country. The DKr146m ($21m) Nuuk information centre task is simply a Tier III colocation installation presently nether operation successful Nuuk, Greenland and operated by Tusass A/S. This operation task stands retired for its committedness to sustainability and is designed to tally connected 100% renewable energy. Additionally, erstwhile operational, the Nuuk information centre volition instrumentality a escaped cooling system, leveraging Greenland's acold clime to trim vigor depletion for cooling infrastructure, which is considered captious for information centre efficiency.


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