Wanted to buy Greenland: Now building AI city in Uruguay

The American tycoon Dryden Brown has for several years been hunting for the perfect place for his project Praxis: an entirely new city built around artificial intelligence and technology. In the summer of 2024, he visited Greenland and met with Greenlandic politicians and entrepreneurs to explore the possibility of building the city there. Nothing ever came of it, however.

Now Praxis has found its location. On the social network X, the network writes that construction has already begun in the +Colonia region of Uruguay, near the historic city of Colonia del Sacramento. According to Praxis' own website, the first residents are expected to move in as early as mid-2027.

Billions at stake

Praxis hopes to raise around one billion dollars, equivalent to about DKK 6.4 billion, in investment for the project over the next three years. According to Uruguayan media, including the newspaper El Observador, more than 2,700 Praxis supporters have expressed interest in moving to the new city.

CEO Dryden Brown has previously compared the project to Florence's heyday during the Renaissance, when wealth from banking and trade laid the groundwork for culture and art. On Praxis' website, he writes, among other things, that artificial intelligence can create wealth the world has never seen before, and that part of the money from home sales will go to artists so they can live in the city regardless of their own finances.

Well-known investors behind the project

Praxis is part of the so-called network state movement, whose purpose is to create new, digitally organized communities that could eventually be recognized as independent states. The investors include several well-known names from the tech world, including Peter Thiel, who is behind the surveillance company Palantir, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who has invested through his fund Apollo Projects.

When Brown visited Greenland, he called the island a "perfect outpost" for his project. He has also looked at countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and the Dominican Republic before the choice landed on Uruguay. According to media in the country, the agreement with the Uruguayan authorities is still not binding, so there is still uncertainty about how big the project will ultimately become.