Every time Peter Thiel opens the doors of his mansion, Javier Milei and his core of loyalists celebrate. The Argentine government was a major promoter of the visit by the owner of Palantir. So much so that part of Thiel’s agenda during his days in Buenos Aires was put together, on more than one occasion, from the Casa Rosada and the Ministry of Economy. From Milei’s inner circle, they called important figures to offer a one-on-one with the megamillionaire who financed the campaigns of Donald Trump and JD Vance.
One of the businessmen who visited Thiel at his home in Barrio Parque shares some unknown details: he says the feeling he got after the meeting was that the far-right magnate did not come to invest. At least, not in the three pillars of the Milei economy: mining, hydrocarbons, and agribusiness. Something made him doubt. Testimonies coincide in constructing a Thiel in the image and likeness of the local Red Circle: the Silicon Valley billionaire, they say, wanted to know if the libertarian experiment can sustain itself over time or is as fleeting as the era that gave rise to it. However, for the government, his presence in Argentina and each of his appearances were a great business.
Owner of an estimated fortune of 29 billion dollars and promoter of a technocratic power that renounces the forms of democracy, Thiel spoke in English and without an interpreter. He was seen playing chess but so far no investment has been reported. His movements suggested he was in Argentina more for family reasons than for a strategic bet on the La Libertad Avanza government. In the business world, they say someone very close to Thiel is of Argentine nationality and that is why he came. According to journalist Juan Gonzalez of Noticias magazine on his social media, Thiel has now decided to leave the country. Is it a trip with no return? Did Milei and Caputo not give him sufficient guarantees? One thing is certain: if Thiel leaves without investing, the government’s narrative will fall to pieces.
Doctor in Computer Science Fernando Schapchnik was one of the first to warn about one of the possible reasons for Thiel’s visit to Argentina. A professor at the Faculty of Exact Sciences of the UBA, former Executive Director of the Sadosky Foundation, and former Argentine representative to the Global Partnership for Artificial Intelligence, Schapchnik noted the coincidence between Thiel’s arrival and the government’s attempt to repeal the Land Law that sets limits on foreigners within the framework of the so-called Inviolability of Private Property Law. Thiel’s objective would be to do the same as he did in Honduras, with the development of Prospera, a free trade zone supported by his investment fund. «The legal basis for obtaining these portions of territory to found these independent cities is the approval by countries of ‘special economic zones’: these are areas belonging to companies, i.e., private property, granted autonomy to dictate part or all of their rules,» he wrote. With strong rejection from a group of civil organizations and the Church, the law favoring foreigners promoted by Federico Sturzenneger will seek half-sanction this Thursday in the Senate. Additionally, this Wednesday, the government will try to approve the Super RIGI in the Chamber of Deputies, another initiative that could fit Thiel’s aspirations.
National deputy Adriana Serquis is one of those who thinks the Super RIGI is adapted to Thiel’s needs and aims to give him all the guarantees to carry out his data centers in Patagonia. A PhD in Physics from the Balseiro Institute, deputy for Fuerza Patria for Río Negro, and former head of the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA), Serquis distinguishes the government’s propaganda from real possibilities. «I don’t think nuclear energy will be available for many years, and I think it will be a tremendous setback for our country in terms of the capabilities we have for energy generation, which is enormous, but we must be planning for our industries, for our people before for these data centers,» Serquis said on Radio Con Vos.
Far from the promises of the Plan launched by Milei with Demian Reidel and the candidate for UN Secretary General Rafael Grossi in December 2024, the outlook that the former head of the CNEA draws on nuclear activity is bleak. Milei is carrying out a massacre in the sector. In addition to salary cuts and the exodus of professionals, there is the paralysis of strategic projects and the crisis in the nuclear ecosystem. There are two concrete examples of the far-right’s policy in the area, which defunds public innovation and transfers knowledge to the private sector. The first is the ACR-300 reactor, a model developed by INVAP in association with the American company Ansari Group. It is a third-generation reactor that produces constant energy and can supply both large industrial consumers and data centers, new technological chains, mining, heavy industry, hydrogen production, and desalination. Under the name Black River Technology, INVAP’s subsidiary in the United States (40% of shares) and Ansari Group (60%) partnered to create Meitner Energy, a firm whose CEO is former Shell executive Teofilo Lacroze. «This company said it would not set up in Argentina. Of course, it set up in Bariloche where the professionals who know about CAREM are, and they took them one by one. For public ethics, if you worked for the State developing something, you should not be able to move to a private company, especially with foreign capital, to do the same thing,» Serquis said on the program «Fuera de Tiempo.»
The other project abandoned by Milei is precisely the CAREM prototype of 32 MW, the first power reactor of completely Argentine design and construction. It is distinguished by being a pressurized light water reactor (PWR), the most widely used type in the world. When La Libertad Avanza came to power, the CAREM 25 had a progress level of 85% in civil works and had invested 600 million dollars. According to reports from the Nuclear Energy Agency, the 280 professionals working on the Argentine project competed with a similar initiative in the United States that employed 800 people and another in the United Kingdom that employed 500. The US government had then invested 1.4 billion dollars, more than double that of Argentina, but the progress level of civil works was zero. «They hadn’t laid a single brick,» Serquis states. Milei decided to dispense with that development and, like a mole, destroy it from within. Today, the professionals who work at the Atucha plant and were dedicated to the project for months are looking for another job to make ends meet. The former head of the CNEA says that CAREM is almost buried but could be reactivated with 250 million dollars, a way to incentivize the value chain of the metal-mechanical industry, one of the activities suffering under the Milei plan.
Para mí esto huele a entrega total, che. Milei prometió el cielo y se le va Peter Thiel sin dejar un mango, mientras entierra el CAREM y los profesionales se rajan. Un desastre, país vendido a los fondos buitre. Viva la ciencia nacional, carajo.
kjjjj Peter Thiel se fue? para mi no entendio nada como los zurdos que festejan. Milei esta limpiando el desastre k, el CAREM era un pozo de guita sin futuro. los profesionales huyen? mejor que se vayan a llorar a otro lado. viva la libertad carajo!