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.
robin_reala 1 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.
sorenjan 38 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.
It's easy to not believe because so many billionaires act with impunity and don't follow laws.
Billionaires associated with that company especially.
dylanz 1 hours ago [-]
He's a huge cross country skier so he probably wants his own little playground
theropost 1 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 14 minutes ago [-]
Disingenuous sells more clicks, of course.
LucaFromAlpha 1 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.
bpodgursky 1 hours ago [-]
$600/acre for timber forest???
I had no idea Sweden was this cheap. Why wouldn't he drop $22mm on this...
sorenjan 35 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 60 minutes 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 1 hours ago [-]
Guessing it's more expensive if you're buying less, otherwise I kinda want to buy 4 acres.
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 1 hours ago [-]
Perhaps there's a reason Sweden wants him to have all of this land.
Hikikomori 55 minutes ago [-]
No he can fuck off please
khat 1 hours ago [-]
[dead]
moralestapia 1 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 30 minutes ago [-]
Probably as retaliation to SAAB.
amelius 9 minutes ago [-]
Why?
nalekberov 1 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 1 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.
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 9 minutes ago [-]
carbon credits? and skiing?
NewJazz 37 minutes ago [-]
Bunker.
bigyabai 5 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.
silverFork 57 minutes ago [-]
Ai farm to be.. I suspect.
david_shaw 55 minutes ago [-]
> Ai farm to be.. I suspect.
I suspect the opposite: a billionaire's escape from a potentially turbulent society.
silverFork 45 minutes 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 40 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 31 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 13 minutes ago [-]
Who needs Uber Eats when you can afford to house a personal chef on campus?
39 minutes ago [-]
ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7 34 minutes ago [-]
or... just plain old land speculation?
silverFork 19 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.
Noe2097 29 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
bigbuppo 55 minutes ago [-]
I mean, the first thing I did when I came into money was buy a couple thousand acres of land.
mertleee 1 hours ago [-]
Assuming this is for conservation, it's hard to find reasons this is a bad thing.
fnordpiglet 1 hours ago [-]
This is where he will build 50 silos
elias_t 1 hours ago [-]
They probably already have nano technology
xhevahir 1 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 1 hours ago [-]
Weak reason given that Sweden has something called Allemansrätten.
gizajob 27 minutes ago [-]
What about fences? I see that people have the right to roam but how are fenced-off areas dealt with?
Hikikomori 44 minutes ago [-]
Let's hope people will use it and invade his land whenever he visits.
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 1 hours ago [-]
Why would Alex Karp randomly buy Swedish forest for conservation?
xhevahir 1 hours ago [-]
Skiing. He arranges his life around Nordic skiing to an incredible degree.
fhdkweig 1 hours ago [-]
I don't really know anything about skiing, but can you do that in a virgin old-growth forest?
raddan 1 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.
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 1 hours ago [-]
Who said it's a virgin old-growth forest?
Ekaros 51 minutes 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 1 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 23 minutes ago [-]
Couldn't let the Netflix guy buy up the one in Utah and have bragging rights.
JumpCrisscross 13 minutes ago [-]
Alpine versus cross country.
cryptolobster 1 hours ago [-]
It still seems a bit strange
mahboi 1 hours ago [-]
Ok that makes a lot more sense
fhdkweig 1 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 1 hours ago [-]
He plans to create a ground for hunting humans, a la "The Most Dangerous Game".
moralestapia 1 hours ago [-]
I wouldn't be surprised.
Karp strikes me as the type of person that would do this "for fun".
What are your reasons for assuming that would be the motive of the Palantir founder?
jacquesm 1 hours ago [-]
Why would you assume that?
mcarper826 1 hours ago [-]
agreed
popalchemist 1 hours ago [-]
why the hell would you assume altruism of the man who takes pride in killing people with automations
eichin 50 minutes 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 :-)
Rendered at 22:20:48 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
The purchased forest (15k hectares, 37k acres) is therefore ~1.3% of the region.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A4rjedalen
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/
Billionaires associated with that company especially.
I had no idea Sweden was this cheap. Why wouldn't he drop $22mm on this...
Quite cheap tho!
Seems like he could buy all of Sweden's forests if he wanted to.
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
Given the current turmoil, building a bunker in the Swedish forest would be like building your porch underneath a tree with 50 beehives.
I suspect the opposite: a billionaire's escape from a potentially turbulent society.
that's what helicopters are for.
-zillionaires, probably
... Wait
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.
https://funasdalen.se/en/winter/skiing/cross-country-skiing/
> 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.
Karp strikes me as the type of person that would do this "for fun".
https://fortune.com/well/2023/02/03/billionaire-palantir-ceo...