Palantir founder Peter Thiel moves to Argentina with family for a three-month stay, drawn by Milei's economic experiment

[Financial News]  
\r\n\r\n
Peter Thiel, the founder of AI platform company Palantir Technologies and co-founder of online payments firm PayPal, has moved to Argentina with his family. His children have enrolled in schools there.
He did so to observe Argentine President Javier Milei's so-called anarcho-capitalist policies firsthand.
The Financial Times (FT) reported on May 29 local time that Thiel had temporarily relocated to Buenos Aires, Argentina, with his family, drawn by Milei's libertarian ideology and deregulation drive.
Thiel met Milei at the presidential palace in April with his same-sex partner, Matt Danzeisen. Milei later told a local radio station that the meeting was "a great meeting between two anarcho-capitalists."
According to sources, Thiel plans to stay in Argentina for about three months. His children have already been enrolled in a local private school.
Thiel, one of the most influential tech investors in the United States, was among the earliest backers of Elon Musk's SpaceX and Sam Altman's OpenAI.
With a network spanning Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C., he has donated millions of dollars to the Republican Party, including support for JD Vance's 2022 Senate campaign in Ohio.
After winning the 2023 election on a promise to rein in crippling inflation, Milei launched his anarcho-capitalist experiment. He has cut public spending by more than 25% and scrapped a wide range of economic regulations.
While spending cuts and deregulation can help foster the private sector and spur growth, they can also threaten the survival of low-income households through welfare reductions. They may also create a competitive landscape that favors large corporations, potentially harming long-term growth.
He has also opposed a wealth tax, calling it "envy," and described taxes as "theft."
Milei has succeeded in bringing down inflation. The annual rate, which had reached 290%, fell to 32.4% in April.
According to one source, Thiel decided to move because he wanted to "watch this democratically elected libertarian experiment up close."
It remains unclear whether Milei will win next year's presidential election and secure a second term. Although he is still the strongest candidate, unemployment has started to rise in recent months and real wages have fallen. A government corruption scandal has also pushed his approval rating down from the mid-40% range to the mid-30% range.
dympna@fnnews.com Song Kyung-jae Reporter