Alex Karp, chief executive of Palantir Technologies, bought 15,000 hectares of forest in Sweden’s Härjedalen region, with local hunting groups learning of the sale through letters ending their leases, according to Swedish media and Fortune.
The purchase price was 235 million kronor, or about $22 million, according to documents cited by Tidningen Härjedalen, the newspaper that first reported the deal; SCA, the seller, separately gave Sveriges Television a figure of 240 million kronor. Swedish authorities approved the acquisition in September 2026, Sveriges Television reported.
Karp bought the land south of the village of Storsjö Kapell in Berg municipality through Cladonia Skog AB, a newly registered Swedish company of which he is the beneficial owner. The property, roughly 37,000 acres, runs along the southern shore of Lake Storsjön toward the mountain ridge Högrensvålvallen, an area known for hiking and fishing, according to Dagens Nyheter.
At least two hunting groups lost their leases when the sale closed and a third stands to lose access next year, according to Swedish reporting. SCA told Tidningen Härjedalen in an email that ending the agreements was “a natural part of the sales process, as we can only grant hunting rights on land we own,” and confirmed to Fortune that hunting on the grounds ended as part of the sales agreement.
SCA, a Swedish forestry and paper company, said it sold the land because it was suboptimal for its own forestry operations. Cladonia Skog told Swedish media it would “carry out forestry and other related activities.” The deal was brokered by Scandinavian Trust, which did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
The new owner of the forest property is committed to the beauty of the land and its preservation. The vast, natural forest landscapes offer valuable habitats for plants and animals, while also serving as a place for recreation and restoration.
The quotation above is from Jenny Lopes Da Silva, a Cladonia board member and Scandinavian Trust sales manager, in a statement to Fortune. Whether hunting rights will be reissued to local groups remains open: Cladonia’s hunting rights across the property become available from July 1, 2027, according to Land.se.
Karp already has ties to Sweden through Palantir, a $450 billion AI and defence software company, which has a partnership with Swedish defence authorities, Anders Fridén, Palantir’s Sweden country manager, confirmed to Fortune earlier this year. No available reporting links the forest purchase to Palantir’s business, and Karp bought the land through a private company rather than through Palantir.
The purchase fits a wider pattern of wealthy individuals buying land. Steve Bruere, president of agricultural real estate firm Peoples Company, has valued US farmland as a $4.3 trillion asset class, and US Department of Agriculture data show US land prices rose 4.3 percent in 2025 to an average of about $4,350 per acre. The spread of carbon credit markets has added further incentive to own forests, according to Fortune.
Karp has bought land for personal use before, including a 3,700-acre former monastery compound in Colorado’s Capitol Creek Valley that sold for $120 million with water rights to irrigate 1,500 acres, according to The Wall Street Journal. Whether Cladonia reissues hunting leases after July 2027 will determine if the Härjedalen purchase remains a straightforward transaction for the communities around Storsjö Kapell.