Hacker News

Palantir founder purchases large swath of forest in Sweden

98 points by davidja 2 hours ago | 75 comments

Jabbles 2 hours ago

Note that the red area on the map in the article is Härjedalen, which has an area of 11,405 km^2, 1.1M hectares, 2.8M acres.

The purchased forest (15k hectares, 37k acres) is therefore ~1.3% of the region.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A4rjedalen

izacus 3 minutes ago

That's ... huge.

robin_reala 2 hours ago

That’s a strange map in the article. It makes it looks like he’s bought all of Härjedalen, rather than two orders of magnitude less. It’s still a chunky piece of land, but it’s definitely not that big.

spankalee 21 minutes ago

If you believe in global threats from AI, global warming, Russia and/or China, this probably isn't a bad place to build a bunker.

rafaelmn 54 seconds ago

You do realize that St Petersburg dot on the map is Russia ?

dylanz 2 hours ago

He's a huge cross country skier so he probably wants his own little playground

sorenjan 56 minutes ago

I don't know exactly where the land is, but according to media it's south of Storsjö kapell [0]. There's plenty of fell there, and he can't just build whatever he wants even if he owns the land. When a billionaire says he spent $22 million to by it for recreation, I don't see a big reason to not believe him, there's not much else he can use it for.

It's not far from Funäsdalen which is a relatively popular ski resort [1], there are also hiking trails and similar [2].

The seller SCA is Europe's biggest private forest owner and owns 2.7 million hectares by the way.

[0] https://maps.app.goo.gl/hQp2Rw9tM6kWTuTdA

[1] https://funasdalen.se/en/winter/skiing/cross-country-skiing/

[2] https://funasdalen.se/en/summer/hiking/

stuaxo 28 minutes ago

It's easy to not believe because so many billionaires act with impunity and don't follow laws.

Billionaires associated with that company especially.

thenayr 15 minutes ago

[dead]

theropost 2 hours ago

Why does it quote 37,000 acres, then show a picture with a large swath of Sweden highlighted as if that is the area purchased - though Sweden is approximately 111 million acres of land, so this would be 0.003% of the land, so nowhere near the representation in this picture - seem disingenuous to me.

loeg 32 minutes ago

Disingenuous sells more clicks, of course.

bpodgursky 2 hours ago

$600/acre for timber forest???

I had no idea Sweden was this cheap. Why wouldn't he drop $22mm on this...

sorenjan 53 minutes ago

Considering where it is it might be protected from logging, so the economic value of the land might be low. The seller is a paper manufacturer, so if they could get more value from it they would have charged more.

Ekaros 2 hours ago

It is somewhat north. So I would expect potential income to be in line. Thus price can be relatively low and there still is not much profit.

mahboi 2 hours ago

Guessing it's more expensive if you're buying less, otherwise I kinda want to buy 4 acres.

robin_reala 2 hours ago

Cheapest I can find in Härjedalen with at least 4 acres is this 70 acre plot for 400k SEK or 40.2k USD: https://www.hemnet.se/bostad/gard-harjedalens-kommun-overber...

s1artibartfast 36 minutes ago

not really comparable. That looks to a parcel with road and and nearby power access, within a few km of a small town that has an airport.

Quite cheap tho!

nazgulsenpai 2 hours ago

Perhaps there's a reason Sweden wants him to have all of this land.

Hikikomori 2 hours ago

No he can fuck off please

khat 2 hours ago

[dead]

moralestapia 2 hours ago

Nothing to see here. There's no corruption in the civilized world, even less in Nordic countries which are maximally developed culturally and socially.

conorcleary 48 minutes ago

Probably as retaliation to SAAB.

amelius 27 minutes ago

Why?

nalekberov 2 hours ago

> Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir Technologies, purchased 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) of forest in Härjedalen, Sweden, for 235 million kronor ($22 million).

Seems like he could buy all of Sweden's forests if he wanted to.

NewJazz 2 hours ago

But would he still have Palantir? Also a large portion of thr forests are likely in public trust, and they'd be hesitant to sell all of it I'd think. Especially to one person with no track record of land management.

Noe2097 47 minutes ago

Wow, that would make such a nice area to train (military) drones & robots, and in the middle of a country concerned by "noisy neighbors"

... Wait

LucaFromAlpha 2 hours ago

what's that meme about rich people just doing really rich stuff and not worrying about being some BS worldly image? yeah that.

tombert 6 minutes ago

I do not understand billionaires. I don't know why Alex Karp is buying large chunks of forests, the vast majority of which he will never see. I don't know why Larry Ellison is buying entire Hawaiian islands he'll never be able to fully use. I don't know understand the appeal of any of this shit.

Is it just that when you're worth billions, hoardings thousands of Steam games you'll never play isn't enough?

OJFord 23 seconds ago

I think it can be lots of things: it's like any collector's item, it's a sort of bespoke investment, it's why not, it's if I own the whole thing I can just do as I please and not particularly worry about answering to anyone (e.g. re where I camp or when I fly there).

Forest in particular could well be pure investment though, it's not even a weird one, just capital intensive.

blondie9x 2 hours ago

Do we know what the goal was? Was this to protect forest land? Similar to something like this? https://www.nicfi.no/2024/12/10/norway-strengthens-support-o...

Although I'm not sure what Norway is attempting is actually working - similar to what we see with carbon credits essentially showing no material decrease in greenhouse gas emission growth. Indonesia is going through some of the worst wildfires ever experienced in human history at the moment. https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cqevw9y34y34t

newsclues 27 minutes ago

carbon credits? and skiing?

NewJazz 55 minutes ago

Bunker.

bigyabai 23 minutes ago

Nah. Sweden has much better places for bunkers than the forest, many of them pre-built into the mountains or on private property.

Given the current turmoil, building a bunker in the Swedish forest would be like building your porch underneath a tree with 50 beehives.

bigbuppo 2 hours ago

I mean, the first thing I did when I came into money was buy a couple thousand acres of land.

mertleee 2 hours ago

Assuming this is for conservation, it's hard to find reasons this is a bad thing.

fnordpiglet 2 hours ago

This is where he will build 50 silos

elias_t 2 hours ago

They probably already have nano technology

xhevahir 2 hours ago

He's probably buying it so that he can ski through miles of virgin forest with his Norwegian bodyguards. I hate this weirdo but he's probably not going to do much to the landscape.

eckelhesten 2 hours ago

Weak reason given that Sweden has something called Allemansrätten.

gizajob 45 minutes ago

What about fences? I see that people have the right to roam but how are fenced-off areas dealt with?

Hikikomori 2 hours ago

Let's hope people will use it and invade his land whenever he visits.

defrost 37 minutes ago

Lagniappe: Mass trespass of Kinder Scout https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_trespass_of_Kinder_Scout

subscribed 2 hours ago

This is a quite far fetched assumption.

I can't recall anything he said or did in the last few years that would make me assume he's done something good for the general public (or the humanity), and not for himself first and foremost.

mahboi 2 hours ago

Why would Alex Karp randomly buy Swedish forest for conservation?

xhevahir 2 hours ago

Skiing. He arranges his life around Nordic skiing to an incredible degree.

fhdkweig 2 hours ago

I don't really know anything about skiing, but can you do that in a virgin old-growth forest?

raddan 2 hours ago

Yes. All you really need are paths. This is a bit of an overgeneralization since forests in different places have different growth habits, but many old growth forests have less underbrush. During the winter, these forests are pretty easy to navigate on Nordic skis. If he wants to skate instead of doing the classic stride, I’m sure he can afford to groom the paths. Grooming really just requires a fancy snowmobile.

sorenjan 51 minutes ago

It's not far from a skiing resort.

https://funasdalen.se/en/winter/skiing/cross-country-skiing/

germinalphrase 2 hours ago

Potentially. Depending on the style of skiing, you may only need a 2-3 ft wide pathway. That said, ski paths tend to be cleared of trees/large rocks and span about 10-15 feet wide.

rafram 2 hours ago

Who said it's a virgin old-growth forest?

Ekaros 2 hours ago

I too doubt it is actually old-growth. Probably industrial forest. Which means that there is plenty of space around most of the trees.

daneel_w 2 hours ago

It might not get to remain a virgin old-growth forest. If the Swedish logging companies can get away with it, he probably can, too.

fragmede 41 minutes ago

Couldn't let the Netflix guy buy up the one in Utah and have bragging rights.

JumpCrisscross 31 minutes ago

Alpine versus cross country.

cryptolobster 2 hours ago

It still seems a bit strange

mahboi 2 hours ago

Ok that makes a lot more sense

fhdkweig 2 hours ago

Trying to buy himself back into heaven, like Bill Gates did. We only have the article's quotation for evidence, but it does say:

> Karp made the purchase through his newly registered company Cladonia Skog AB. The chairman of Cladonia told the Swedish newspaper that the land provides valuable habitat for wildlife and space for recreation.

colordrops 2 hours ago

He plans to create a ground for hunting humans, a la "The Most Dangerous Game".

moralestapia 2 hours ago

I wouldn't be surprised.

Karp strikes me as the type of person that would do this "for fun".

unreal6 2 hours ago

It is well known he loves to nordic ski

https://fortune.com/well/2023/02/03/billionaire-palantir-ceo...

Naillik 2 hours ago

What are your reasons for assuming that would be the motive of the Palantir founder?

jacquesm 2 hours ago

Why would you assume that?

mcarper826 2 hours ago

agreed

popalchemist 2 hours ago

why the hell would you assume altruism of the man who takes pride in killing people with automations

silverFork 2 hours ago

Ai farm to be.. I suspect.

david_shaw 2 hours ago

> Ai farm to be.. I suspect.

I suspect the opposite: a billionaire's escape from a potentially turbulent society.

silverFork 2 hours ago

Could be.. zillionaires usually like mountains; I hear he can't drive; driving the boonies far from civilization is not that easy in the winter. He needs to buy a big shovel for the winter.

john_strinlai 58 minutes ago

>I hear he can't drive; driving the boonies far from civilization is not that easy in the winter. He needs to buy a big shovel for the winter.

that's what helicopters are for.

-zillionaires, probably

silverFork 49 minutes ago

He needs a landing strip for an aircraft. Helicopters are dangerous at night. No uber eats delivery there. We will see. It will take a decade to set it up.

cheschire 31 minutes ago

Who needs Uber Eats when you can afford to house a personal chef on campus?

silverFork 3 minutes ago

I guess he can afford it but why then would he move to boonies. Is he not going there to chop wood and take videos of the deer in the forest? Is it going to be a compound with people bending 90 degree and saying yes sir?

tadasv 16 minutes ago

Lol, if we're talking about a scenario like this, do you think these billionaires are like Noah with their arc, just collecting people to survive? I cannot see a sane person joining them or not ratting them out if things really go bad.

tadasv 18 minutes ago

I don't understand why people have this silly take that billionaires somehow will hide in the bunker and be fine. Do you really think that if we get to that point, they will happily live in a bunker by themselves lol. These people are unable to survive by themselves, let alone in a bunker. Do you think food and shit will get delivered to some random location just like that when shtf.

fragmede 13 minutes ago

they have food and water to last decades in the bunker without needing external supplies. Why would they need to be supplied from the outside world? that's the entire point! (agree with the rest of your point though)

ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7 52 minutes ago

or... just plain old land speculation?

silverFork 37 minutes ago

Yup it could be but speculation needs a cause.. Hard assets are the rage right now anyways for AI zillionaires. He has apparently bought a monastery in Colorado for $120M; Miami beach house for $55M; 500 acre land in New Hampshire. His net worth is about $20B, $22M is like buying a toy to him and it is not a major investment.

eichin 2 hours ago

Maybe he wants his own version of Nathan's estate in Ex Machina (redditor calculations from in-movie clues put it at 7 million hectares, though, so this isn't even close :-)