Peter Thiel, the tech billionaire and influential right-wing donor, is reportedly seeking an exit plan to leave the United States once again. His timing appears peculiar given his unprecedented sway in Washington and substantial financial incentives to remain stateside.
Thiel's Argentine Ambitions
Thiel, who previously obtained New Zealand citizenship and reportedly pursued a Maltese passport, now has his sights set on Argentina. Over the past two months, the Palantir and PayPal co-founder has allegedly purchased a $12 million mansion in an exclusive district of Buenos Aires, temporarily relocated his family to the country, and met with leaders including Argentinian President Javier Milei. The country is reportedly considering offering Thiel citizenship.
People familiar with Thiel's thinking told The New York Times that the billionaire has concerns about the direction of the United States, particularly his long-time base of California, which is contemplating a controversial billionaire tax. The Independent was not immediately able to reach Thiel for comment.
A History of Hedging
There is a long history of tech founders viewing distant frontiers as hedges against the present. Tech investors are trying to develop a new city on the outskirts of San Francisco. Silicon Valley billionaires have spent years snapping up real estate in New Zealand as "apocalypse insurance." Billionaires have floated ideas from Mars to remote Pacific islands to Thiel-backed oceanic "seasteading" communities as the future of humanity.
Irony of Timing
What makes Thiel's apparent doubts about America so notable is their timing. On the surface, it has never been a better time to be Peter Thiel in America. His political network is essentially running Washington. His protégé JD Vance is vice president, serving President Donald Trump, whom Thiel backed in the 2016 election. Members of the "PayPal mafia," the group of influential executives and investors tied to the payments firm, have held prominent positions inside the White House.
David Sacks was, until recently, Trump's AI czar. Last year, Elon Musk was handed the keys to the federal budget as part of the DOGE initiative, as young techies infiltrated agencies and slashed thousands of employees and billions of dollars in federal spending.
Government Contracts Soar
Meanwhile, Thiel's companies are selling contracts to the Trump administration at a rapid pace. In the first quarter of 2026, Palantir reportedly took in $687 million from government contracts, much of it serving the Trump administration's homeland security and immigration agenda. In March, defense tech firm Anduril, another part of the Thiel network, inked a 10-year deal with the Army worth up to $20 billion.
Ideological Ascendancy
On a deeper ideological level, Thiel's political project has never been more ascendant. He and Sacks were anti-woke before it was mainstream, co-authoring a 1998 critique of multiculturalism called The Diversity Myth. Since then, Thiel has become more religious and regularly lectures about the Antichrist. So, what is it about living through the second Trump era, in which the defense secretary leads Christian prayer services in the Pentagon and the federal government has made diversity programs nearly illegal, that Thiel finds so upsetting?
Anti-Tech Backlash
Part of the reason likely involves the anti-tech, anti-billionaire backlash brewing in liberal states such as California and New York. New York City is considering a pied-a-terre tax under its democratic socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani. As The Independent has reported, the California billionaire tax set off a panicked reaction throughout the state's tech community—one founder called it "economic 9/11"—and Thiel left the state in late 2025, ahead of a January 1, 2026, residency deadline for the proposed tax. Fellow ultra-wealthy individuals similarly seem to be feeling the heat. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos used a recent interview to bash billionaire taxes while calling for the elimination of taxes entirely on America's working class.
Silicon Valley's Contradictions
Given Silicon Valley's bizarre history, it is somewhat surprising that the Thiels of the world have stuck around in America as long as they have. As charted in a forthcoming book on Big Tech, the tech world has long had a conflicted—and at times fully delusional—understanding of its own place in politics. Silicon Valley has prided itself on being a countercultural, multicultural, sustainable, libertarian utopia pushing forward progress. At the same time, the industry has long done extensive business with Wall Street, the U.S. military, fossil fuel companies, and, in some cases, repressive regimes and security states across the world. It has fancied itself a key part of the civic coalition in California, even as the state perennially struggles with affordability and homelessness—some of it driven by Big Tech wealth itself.
Given this radioactive bundle of contradictions, what is an ideologue like Thiel to do but seek refuge elsewhere?
