In April, Argentines were surprised to learn that Peter Thiel, co-founder of data analytics giant Palantir and a fierce opponent of the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI), was visiting Buenos Aires, and had met with President Javier Milei. Another surprise came when, following Thiel’s visit, Milei published an article in the Financial Times stating that he had submitted legislation to jumpstart AI investment in Argentina by creating a new legal category, that of the “non-human corporation.” The proposal provoked a sharp response from international public intellectual Yuval Noah Harari as well as from within Argentina itself where it was linked to the two men’s shared libertarian ideology.
Milei has long enjoyed hobnobbing with the masters of Silicon Valley. But is his aim of an AI-powered renaissance more than just a techno-utopian pipe dream? Getting Argentina’s fractious Congress to pass his bill will be challenging. And if his near-term goal is fostering data center construction, the question arises of how they will be powered, given Argentina’s rickety electrical grid. Artificial intelligence may indeed have a role in Argentina’s future, but its much-hyped prospects cannot obscure the reality that Milei’s main aim must be leading his country through what is still a painful, at best half-finished, reform program.
A Visit and an Op-Ed…
In late April Argentines learned that Peter Thiel, the tech investor and one of the founders of data analytics firm Palantir Technologies was visiting Buenos Aires and even had purchased a home there. It was speculated that Thiel’s interest in Argentina was motivated by fears of some coming apocalyptic event that he could escape by moving to this far southern location. It was also suggested that he felt in tune with Milei’s libertarianism and saw him as likely to make Argentina a low tax haven at a time when some U.S. jurisdictions are contemplating an unwelcome “billionaire’s tax.”
Thiel met with Milei for a cordial conversation which the latter praised, saying that “he (Thiel) is an anarcho-capitalist as am I philosophically.” Thiel maintained a high profile while in Argentina, including attending a soccer match, participating in a chess tournament, and reportedly purchasing a house worth 12 million dollars. However he does not appear have yet sought residency; he earlier acquired citizenship in another southern hemisphere jurisdiction, New Zealand.
While the Argentine public was still absorbing the idea of Thiel possibly moving there, on June 4 Milei published an op-ed in the Financial Times, a key outlet for the global business elite, about making his country a force in AI through radical deregulation. (Given that AI figures heavily in Thiel’s enterprises and he has argued that its regulation could have a “global totalitarian character,” local observers linked the visit and the article.)
Milei expressed concern that recent technologies such as blockchain had become the victims of “precisely the wrong legal architecture.” He argued that this is especially worrying for AI as “we are on the threshold of an era in which artificial intelligence will free us from the constraints of the human brain, pushing productivity beyond our wildest dreams, ” an era which must not be hindered by “the deadly hand of premature and poorly understood regulation.”
Instead, he argued, “companies run by new technologies such as AI agents” require that same limited liability protection “that has underpinned capitalism for four centuries.” To that end, he
announced that he had submitted draft legislation to Argentina’s Congress which includes a commitment to keep AI unregulated. But beyond that, it would create a new legal category, the “non-human corporation… entities operated by AI agents or robots… systems (that) exercise independent judgment in unpredictable environments.” They must, in Milei’s view, be given limited liability as it is “not a luxury for such entities; it is a precondition for their existence.”
… Provoke Reactions
Milei’s proposal immediately caused controversy. Yuval Noah Harari, the Oxford-educated Israeli thinker and author of the recently published Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI, wrote a response in the Financial Times entitled “We must not grant AI agents legal personhood.” He warned of a world in which “unlike traditional corporations… (these entities will be) buying selling, hiring, investing, litigating, and donating” without human participation. He asked what would deter a “non-human corporation” from undesirable or even illegal activity as its powerful capabilities could be deployed without the ultimate sanction that human CEOs face of being tried and sent to prison. He raised the specter of an “AI state—a country whose people could in effect be ruled by non-human corporations.”
Locally, Milei’s article, on top of Thiel’s visit, produced a sharp reaction from Elisa Carrió, leader of the Civic Coalition, a political party centered on good government and combating corruption. In an open letter she expressed deep concern that Argentina was becoming “the chosen place for a social experiment with terrible consequences for human freedom, thought, expression, dignified life, privacy and freedom of choice arising from the non-regulation of artificial intelligence.” She saw Milei as promoting the “complete private totalitarianism of one corporation: that of Peter Thiel.”
Carrió called for the rejection of “the president’s irrational caprice” which she characterized as part of the “so-called dark enlightenment”—a term often used to describe reactionary ideologues such as Curtis Yarvin, whose thinking had some purchase among the Silicon Valley elite. Yarvin disparages conventional democracy which he describes as dominated by the “cathedral” of academic, media and bureaucratic figures and looks towards an efficient, authoritarian government by a technological elite.
Thiel seemingly has affinities with this thinking. He said in 2009: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible” and has put money into “Prospera,” a controversial privately governed community in Honduras, now embroiled in lawsuits. (And in a theological excursion, he has even associated efforts to regulate AI with the potential rise of the Antichrist.) But Milei does seem to be a more conventional, if deeply committed libertarian, who takes his cue from such “Austrian school” economic thinkers as Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises, although his contempt for Argentina’s establishment, which he terms “the caste,” does parallel the alleged sins of “the cathedral” and his political style, which is high on abusive rhetoric, can have an authoritarian ring to it.
In any event, Milei clearly is attracted to the promise of AI’s transformative role. In addition to cultivating Thiel, he has visited the United States, meeting with such industry leaders as Tim Cook (Apple), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), Sam Altman (OpenAI), and Sundar Pichai (Google). He has also developed a rapport with Elon Musk, centered on their shared interest in shrinking government, as was demonstrated when he gifted Musk with a chainsaw, the symbol of his anti-state campaign.
Ready for a Tech Boom?
With or without Milei’s “non-human corporation,” can Argentina become a pole for technological investment? Argentina has one of Latin America’s most highly educated populations, despite the damage to its to its university system from years of economic and political chaos. Particularly notable is the Balseiro Institute in Bariloche which trains physicists, as well as atomic, mechanical and telecommunications engineers; thus Argentina has some capacity to foster the necessary human capital for a significant AI-related tech sector.
And on the narrower, if more immediate goal of attracting data centers, Milei has gained some interest from global investors. (There are currently a mere 29 data centers in Argentina, compared with 5427 in the United States.) Argentina is participating in the so-called “Stargate Project,” a massive effort to build out AI capacity led by OpenAI, together with Japan’s SoftBank, with participation from a range of other major tech firms; early into his second term Trump announced official U.S. government support for this effort.
OpenAI, together with an Argentine partner, has announced the creation of “Stargate Argentina,” a planned $25 billion investment in data center construction in Patagonia, where cold weather could mitigate these centers’ high demand for air conditioning. On a smaller scale, cloud-based software firm Salesforce has announced a five-year, $500 million planned investment in Argentine AI capacity. And in June, Milei announced Argentine participation in the U.S. government-led “Pax Silica” initiative to secure supply chains for advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence-related infrastructure, semiconductors and critical minerals.
It’s Not So Easy
But there is a huge difference between announcements and actual investment. Globally there are questions as to whether the AI boom is really a bubble at least over the short term. And the Stargate Project seems to have over-promised, as it confronts the cost of electricity to power data centers, leading, for instance, to a pause in construction in the United Kingdom.
This is sure to be an issue in Argentina where the power grid barely provides for existing needs. Argentina’s untapped wind power potential on its bleak southern plains may be an option. Milei has also shown enthusiasm for the emerging technology of small modular nuclear reactors. However, while Argentina has experience with nuclear energy, having built two existing large nuclear power plants, the head of the state atomic energy enterprise, physicist and Harvard-trained economist Demián Reidel, a close associate of Milei who had had a role in introducing him to American technology leaders, has had to resign amidst a corruption scandal.
Argentina’s oil and gas sector, which is having its own boom as vast shale deposits are beginning to be exploited at scale, could also become a source of power for data centers, although with an oil pipeline to the Atlantic coast nearing completion and gas pipelines under consideration, investors seem oriented towards conquering international markets. And in addition to requiring immense quantities of electrical power, data center development will also need water, which could be hard to find on the dry territory of Argentina’s south. (Water became a sensitive issue when Milei pushed through legislation loosening restrictions on mining operations near the Andean glaciers.)
Milei may be right to have his eye on AI, but he will need to avoid confusing the pleasure of associating with this new breed of tech titans and sharing their libertarian visions with the necessary hardheaded analysis of the sector’s costs and benefits. He has been engaged in a tough economic reform program, and at least to some extent has managed to convince Argentines of the truth of the saying, much beloved among libertarians, that “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” and that the path to recovering the standard of living which the country once enjoyed will be arduous. He will do his country no favor by getting sidetracked by fantasies of AI-fueled shortcuts.
