{"text":[[{"start":8.65,"text":"US tech billionaire Peter Thiel has temporarily moved his family to Buenos Aires, drawn by the libertarian ideology and regulation-busting agenda of Argentina’s President Javier Milei."}],[{"start":20.55,"text":"Thiel, the founder of data intelligence group Palantir, plans to spend roughly three months in Argentina initially and has enrolled his children in a local private school, said two people familiar with his plans."}],[{"start":32.35,"text":"Since arriving in Buenos Aires in April, Thiel has attended a Superclásico football match between the city’s two biggest teams and spent a Saturday at a local chess club, placing third in a tournament. Thiel told the club’s surprised young players he hoped to return, according to one member."}],[{"start":49.400000000000006,"text":"Thiel has purchased a six-bedroom mansion in Palermo Chico, a leafy central neighbourhood full of embassies. He has also bought land to build a home near Punta del Este, a Uruguayan beach town popular with Argentina’s wealthy, said one person familiar with his plans."}],[{"start":67,"text":"Thiel’s spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment."}],[{"start":71.15,"text":"Thiel is one of America’s most influential technology investors. The PayPal co-founder was one of the earliest investors in Elon Musk’s SpaceX as well as Sam Altman’s OpenAI and cultivated a network spanning Silicon Valley and Washington. "}],[{"start":85.55000000000001,"text":"The political iconoclast has also donated millions of dollars to Republican causes, including funding vice-president JD Vance’s 2022 run for Ohio Senate. Earlier, Thiel provided the seed funding for Vance’s venture capital firm Narya. "}],[{"start":101.95000000000002,"text":"He has found a like-minded person in Milei, a libertarian economist who has pledged to “destroy” the Argentine state from within. Since Milei’s election in 2023, he has slashed public spending by more than a quarter and undone large swaths of the nation’s myriad economic regulations."}],[{"start":119.30000000000001,"text":"Thiel and his husband Matt Danzeisen met Milei in April at Argentina’s presidential palace. Milei told local radio station Neura after that it was a “wonderful meeting” between two “anarcho-capitalists”. Thiel had asked about the sustainability of Milei’s economic reforms and the issue of wealth taxes, the president added."}],[{"start":140.10000000000002,"text":"“This idea of wealth taxes on the super-rich has a clear connotation of envy,” Milei told Neura. “We consider taxes to be theft.”"}],[{"start":149.55,"text":"Thiel was first introduced to Milei in 2024 by Alec Oxenford, an Argentine businessman whose online marketplace OLX received funding from Thiel’s venture capital firm in the 2000s. Oxenford is now Milei’s ambassador in Washington."}],[{"start":164.70000000000002,"text":"Oxenford said on X at the time that Thiel had told him “he believes Javier Milei’s ideas are as relevant on a global level as they are in Argentina”."}],[{"start":173.50000000000003,"text":"Thiel has been impressed by Milei’s policies, which have lowered Argentina’s severe inflation from an annual peak of 290 per cent to 32.4 per cent this April, and wants to “see this democratically elected libertarian exercise up close”, said one person familiar with his thinking."}],[{"start":192.60000000000002,"text":"Analysts say Milei is the favourite to win next year’s presidential election, though his approval rating has fallen in recent months, from the mid 40s to the mid 30s, as unemployment rose, real wages dipped and a corruption scandal hit the government."}],[{"start":206.70000000000002,"text":"Thiel has met many of Milei’s top team since arriving in Argentina, including economy minister Luis Caputo, deregulation minister Federico Sturzenegger and political strategist Santiago Caputo."}],[{"start":219.45000000000002,"text":"His stay in Argentina is his latest effort to establish home bases outside the US. In 2011 Thiel received citizenship from New Zealand, where he has tried to build a sprawling lakeside compound. He was also an early investor in the techno-utopian “seasteading” movement to build floating cities."}],[{"start":238.65,"text":"Milei’s government is planning to launch a citizenship-by-investment scheme. An Argentine official said Thiel had not applied for citizenship."}],[{"start":247.75,"text":"However, Milei’s cabinet chief Manuel Adorni said last month, during a presentation to Congress, that it was “flattering” that Thiel had decided to visit."}],[{"start":257,"text":"“The billionaires of the world who want to flee increasingly high-regulation and high-tax countries are very welcome to come to Argentina, the new land of freedom,” Adorni said."}],[{"start":266.2,"text":"Additional reporting by George Hammond in San Francisco"}],[{"start":276.25,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1780137604_5084.mp3"}