Swedish Since September, residents of the municipality of Berg in Jämtland have been wondering why the CEO of the American company Palantir Alex Karp has bought a massive area of forest and fells.
The municipality is located in central Sweden on the Norwegian border.
The 240 million kroner deal, or about 21.7 million euros, was already reported in September by, among others, The newspaper Härjedalen and Today’s Industry.
Palantir, one of the most controversial technology companies in the world, creates systems that can be used for mass surveillance of people. For example, the human rights organization Amnesty has accused Palantir of human rights violations in its dealings with the US Immigration Service.
Karpin the area purchased is 15,000 hectares in size, which corresponds to the area of the entire municipality of Malmö, says SVT.
The seller was the forestry company SCA. It justified the sale by saying that the area is not optimal for forestry, as a large part of it is treeless fells.
Karp bought the area through his newly established Swedish company Cladonia Skog AB.
The trade has also attracted attention among local hunters. Two hunting clubs lost their hunting rights in the area earlier this fall, and the third will lose its rights next year.
Swedish the county government and the Strategic Products Inspection Agency ISP have approved the deal. The county government estimates that the store will not weaken the locals’ ability to use the area.
According to SVT, Karp has announced that forestry will continue to be practiced in the area. His company also plans to arrange hunting rights for local hunters, but the exact arrangements are still open.
Residents are still worried about the root causes of the trade. There have been rumors in the area that the land could be used to build a data center.
“Everything is very fake, so we don’t get to know much. There are a lot of question marks,” a resident interviewed by the news agency TT Ulf Näslund told.
Cladonia Skog has denied speculations about building a data center.