Argentina’s President, Javier Milei , is set to meet with top tech leaders in Silicon Valley this week, including Sundar Pichai from Google, Sam Altman from OpenAI, Mark Zuckerberg from Meta, and Tim Cook from Apple. Milei, a far-right libertarian, had a meeting last month with Elon Musk, who has publicly supported Milei’s pro-deregulation and anti-social justice stance on X (formerly Twitter). Additionally, tech billionaire Peter Thiel has visited Milei twice this year, traveling to Buenos Aires for discussions in February and May.
These meetings are part of strategy of Javier Milei to gain international allies and influence following his election late last year. Besides engaging with tech CEOs and speaking at libertarian think tanks, Milei addressed a rally in Spain earlier this month supporting Vox, Spain’s far-right, anti-immigrant party.
At home, Argentina is grappling with its worst economic crisis in decades and widespread protests against the government’s severe austerity measures. Despite this, Milei has embarked on an extensive international diplomacy tour during his first six months in office. He has visited the US four times and undertaken eight foreign tours, a record for an Argentinian president at the start of their term.
Javier Milei , a political outsider, won Argentina’s election last November with his flamboyant behavior and promises to drastically cut government ministries. During the campaign, he made controversial statements such as calling Pope Francis a “son of a bitch preaching communism” and revealed he had cloned dogs named after conservative economists. His stances against abortion access, gender equality, and his revisionist views on Argentina’s military dictatorship have won him support from the global right while raising concerns among human rights groups.