Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, will meet with the leaders of some of the world’s largest technology companies in Silicon Valley this week. The far-right libertarian leader will hold private conversations with Google’s Sundar Pichai, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Apple’s Tim Cook.
Milei also met last month with Elon Musk, who has become one of the South American president’s most prominent cheerleaders, repeatedly sharing his pro-deregulation, anti-social justice message on X (formerly Twitter). Peter Thiel, the technology billionaire, has also visited Milei twice, flying to Buenos Aires to speak with him in February and May this year.
The series of meetings with tech leaders is part of Milei’s broader campaign to gain international influence and allies following his election late last year. In addition to holding events at libertarian think tanks and talks with CEOs, Milei spoke at a rally in Spain earlier this month in support of the country’s far-right, anti-immigrant party Vox.
Nationally, Argentina is facing its worst economic crisis in decades and widespread protests against the government’s harsh austerity measures. However, the high-flying Milei has been on an international diplomacy tour during his first six months as president. He has visited the US four times and made eight foreign tours, a record for Argentine presidents at the start of their terms.
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Milei emerged as a political outsider who won a second round of voting in last November’s Argentine elections. He gained attention for his eccentric, bombastic behavior and campaign promises to implement extreme budget cuts in almost all ministries. During the election, he called Pope Francis a “bastard who preached communism” and revealed that he had several cloned dogs named after conservative economists. Milei’s attacks on access to abortion, opposition to gender equality and the revisionist history of Argentina’s military dictatorship have endeared him to the global right, while human rights groups have sounded the alarm.
One of his biggest supporters is the CEO of Tesla, who has tried to forge friendly ties with right-wing world leaders while seeking favorable treatment for his many companies. Milei has spoken publicly about Musk’s interest in Argentina’s vast reserves of lithium, a key mineral for powering modern batteries, and has pushed for deregulation that would lower costs for mining companies. After Milei’s visit to Musk in April, the Argentine government stated that the two “agreed on the need for free markets and [to] defend the ideas of freedom”.
Milei’s arrival in Silicon Valley comes after he held a stadium show in Buenos Aires last week for his book release, in which he sang to a live rock band and blamed Argentina’s economic problems on “enemies who are trying to overthrow this government because they want socialism ‘. and the misery will continue.”
While tech companies like Google and Facebook once heavily promoted their platforms as tools to protect and strengthen democracy, major platforms have increasingly branded themselves as apolitical. Google recently fired dozens of employees following protests at its offices over a $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government and military, with Pichai saying the company was not a place “to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics ”.
