Peter Thiel has purchased a $12 million mansion in one of Buenos Aires’ most exclusive neighborhoods, enrolled his children in local schools, and moved his family there — the latest in a series of exits from the United States by the PayPal and Palantir co-founder, the New York Times reported. Sources who spoke to the Times described the move as temporary.
Over the past two months, Thiel, 58, held meetings with Argentine President Javier Milei and his cabinet and hosted a dinner with Buenos Aires economists where he raised the Antichrist — a subject he returns to regularly in public settings.
Two people familiar with his plans told the Times that concerns about the direction of the US, and specifically California, drove part of the decision. A proposed ballot initiative could impose a 5% tax on California residents with a net worth exceeding $1 billion.
Thiel left California in late 2025, just before the January 1, 2026 residency deadline of the proposed tax. In December 2025, he donated $3 million to the California Business Roundtable — his largest disclosed political contribution in years — to fund opposition to the measure. People familiar with his thinking cited additional concerns beyond the tax: broader political instability, the risk of nuclear war, and the threat of runaway AI.
Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist who took office December 10, 2023, has built his government around radical deregulation, deep cuts to public spending, and hostility to taxation — a program that closely mirrors Thiel’s own declared political convictions.
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A person familiar with Thiel’s plans told the Times that the Argentine government explored offering him permanent residence or citizenship, though whether he would accept remains unclear. A spokesman for Milei denied any such offer had been made. Argentina has a “golden passport” program under development that would grant citizenship to investors who make substantial financial commitments to the country.
Thiel, who was born in Germany and raised in the US, received New Zealand citizenship in 2011 under an “exceptional circumstances” provision. This grant became a minor national scandal when documents released under New Zealand’s Official Information Act revealed he had spent just 12 days in the country across four visits, against a standard requirement of 1,350 days. He applied for a Maltese passport in 2022, which would have granted him EU access.
The Independent noted that Thiel’s departure comes as his ties to the US have never been stronger. Palantir collected $687 million in government contracts in the first quarter of 2026 from the very administration his protégé, Vice President JD Vance, helps run — a career Thiel seeded with a $10 million super PAC contribution during Vance’s 2022 Ohio Senate campaign.
In March, Anduril — a defense technology firm backed by Thiel’s Founders Fund — signed a 10-year contract with the US Army worth up to $20 billion. David Sacks, another PayPal alumnus, stepped down as White House AI and crypto czar in late March 2026 after exhausting his 130-day special government employee limit and moved to co-chair the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
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