Peter Thiel buys $12M Buenos Aires mansion, temporarily relocates family to Argentina

Billionaire investor Peter Thiel has purchased a $12 million mansion in Buenos Aires and temporarily moved his family to Argentina, driven by concerns over taxation, the threat of nuclear war and the risks of artificial intelligence, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

Over the past several months, the PayPal and Palantir co-founder purchased the mansion in the Argentine capital, enrolled his children in local schools and met with President Javier Milei and other officials, sources familiar with Mr. Thiel’s plans told the Times. 

According to a single source familiar with Mr. Thiel’s plans, the Argentine government explored the possibility of offering him permanent residency or citizenship, the Times reported. A spokesman for Mr. Milei denied that any such offer had been made. 

Mr. Thiel’s motivations partly stem from concerns about the trajectory of the United States, his affinity for Mr. Milei’s libertarian ideology and a general interest in “backup countries” in the event of a major world conflict. He has been vocal about the threat of nuclear war and the potential negative consequences of artificial intelligence, the Times reported, and may view Argentina’s location in the Southern Hemisphere as a strategic remove from those threats. 

His concerns about the domestic political direction center on California, where the Times reported that over half of voters support a proposed one-time wealth tax on billionaires. Mr. Thiel left California in late 2025, just before a Jan. 1, 2026, residency deadline attached to the proposed ballot initiative, which would impose a 5% annual tax on California residents with a net worth exceeding $1 billion. In December, he donated $3 million to a committee opposing the measure.

Mr. Thiel also purchased land in neighboring Uruguay, a property that some observers have speculated could include a bunker to shelter from nuclear catastrophe — though the Times offered no confirmation of that claim. 

Mr. Milei described a recent meeting between the two positively, saying they both view “taxes as theft.” Since taking office in 2023, Mr. Milei has sought to revamp Argentina’s economy through deregulation and government spending cuts while also courting foreign investment. 

Not everyone in Argentina has welcomed the development. Argentine opposition politician Elisa Lilita Carrio wrote on X in April: “What Peter Thiel is doing is terrible, and his settling in Argentina is even worse. You need to look up what Palantir is. It goes against the Republic, democracy, and freedoms.”

In recent years, Mr. Thiel has increasingly invoked religious and apocalyptic themes in public appearances, speaking about the Antichrist and warning that fear of existential threats could be used to justify the creation of a “one-world” government with sweeping powers. The Times reported that those interests have followed him to Buenos Aires: at a recent dinner hosted at his mansion, the conversation reportedly turned to the Antichrist, a topic that has become one of the billionaire’s favorite subjects. 

The relocation comes despite Mr. Thiel’s deepening financial ties to the United States. Palantir, which he co-founded and chairs, recorded $687 million in U.S. government revenue in the first quarter of 2026. Anduril Industries, backed by Mr. Thiel’s Founders Fund, secured a 10-year contract with the U.S. Army worth up to $20 billion in March.

Mr. Thiel has a history of obtaining citizenship and residency in multiple nations, having received New Zealand citizenship in 2011 and applied for a Maltese passport in 2022. The Times characterized the Argentine move as temporary.