Peter Thiel, the right-wing billionaire and one of Donald Trump’s biggest backers in tech, has quietly relocated to Argentina and is weighing whether to make it his next backup country. According to The New York Times, Thiel has spent the past two months in Buenos Aires, bought a mansion in one of the city’s most exclusive neighborhoods, and even enrolled his children in a local school. The 58-year-old investor’s pivot to the far south is partly driven by the same worry now pushing several tech billionaires out of California: a proposed wealth tax.Thiel has met repeatedly with Argentine President Javier Milei and his ministers, and the government has explored offering him permanent residence or citizenship, the NYT reported, though Milei’s spokesman denied any such offer was on the table.
What is California’s 5 percent wealth tax driving billionaires out
The trigger linking Thiel to Google‘s founders is a November ballot initiative in California. Proposed by a healthcare union, it would apply a one-time 5 percent tax on the assets of anyone in the state worth more than a billion dollars. If passed, it would retroactively cover anyone who lived in California as of January 1, with five years to pay.That prospect has already reshaped where some of America’s richest people park their money. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who founded Google in 1998 and turned it into a nearly $4 trillion company, have both been cutting ties with the state that made them. More than 45 California LLCs tied to Page filed last month to go inactive or move out, while an entity connected to Brin terminated or relocated 15 companies in the 10 days before Christmas, the NYT found. A trust linked to Page also picked up a $71.9 million mansion in Miami.Thiel started seriously eyeing Buenos Aires real estate about a year ago, around the time the California measure began gaining attention. He’s a veteran at collecting fallback options. Born in Germany and raised in the US, he took New Zealand citizenship in 2011 and applied for a Maltese passport in 2022.
Why Thiel picked Argentina and Javier Milei over the United States
But Argentina isn’t only a financial hedge. Thiel has found a genuine ideological partner in Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist who shares his distaste for taxes, socialism and “wokeness.” After one meeting, Milei described it as two like-minded men talking shop, and recalled Thiel asking how libertarianism might outlast his presidency.The country also fits Thiel’s long-running fears about nuclear war and runaway AI. Insulated in the Southern Hemisphere, Argentina works as what some allies openly call a Plan B for civilization. Thiel has bought land near Punta del Este in neighboring Uruguay, prompting speculation it could house a bunker.He’s leaned into the local life, too, finishing third at a neighborhood chess tournament, attending the River Plate–Boca Juniors clash, and hosting a candlelit dinner where the conversation drifted to one of his favorite subjects: the Antichrist. So far, his only confirmed investment in Argentina is personal real estate.
